Steven Rondos Jailed

Bay Ridge attorney Steven Rondos, and the law firm Raia and Rondos,has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on one 1 count of money laundering, 1 count of 1st-degree grand larceny, 9 counts of 2nd degree grand larceny, 5 counts of 3rd degree grand larceny, 1 count of a scheme to defraud, and offering a false instrument for filing.

Between 2001 and 2008, Rondos allegedly stole more than $4 million from the accounts of 23 incapacitated clients for whom he acted as a court-appointed guardian -- 14 of them in Brooklyn.

If convicted of the most serious of the charges, Rondos faces up to 25 years in prison.

Rondos' victims included a 32-year-old quadriplegic with cerebral palsy who lost more than $1 million and a now-deceased mental patient tapped for over $400,000.

Octogenarian Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau bluntly termed Rondos, a Canadian-born U.S. citizen, a "son of a bitch".

Rondos, who served as court-appointed guardian for incapacitated children and adults, used his clients' funds to renovate -- landscaping, new kitchen and a home theatre -- and to pay off the mortgage on his Ridgewood, NJ. home.

He was arrested at home as a "fugitive from justice" and is booked under the alias "Stavras Rontoyiannis" at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey awaiting extradition.

According to the New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA), Rondos was involved in more than 50 guardianship proceedings over the past 5 years and was paid $200,000 in legal fees.

A spokesman for the New York Office of Court Administration (OCA) admitted it had been lax in overseeing Rondos' handling of the accounts, and that some of the examiners monitoring guardian accounts had been asked to resign.

Starting immediately, OCA has mandated compliance hearings between guardians and courts whenever a filing or accounting is late, and judges must appoint court examiners from a list of lawyers and others certified by the Appellate Division to review guardians' annual reports.

Lax oversight by court examiners apparently facilitated Rondos' actions. Examiners, who are supposed to examine guardians' reports and bills, are reimbursed annually based on the size of the estates they monitor.

Sixteen different examiners signed off on the cases in the indictment, including a Manhattan surrogate's court attorney.

Court examiners have been called the "key to guardian oversight in New York", the "eyes and ears" of the court, but financial reviews are often cursory, guardians' reports are not vetted, guardians are rarely interviewed face-to-face, clerical staff handle many of the details, and examiners and guardians have little contact.

Five court examiners have resigned and one has been suspended as a result of the Rondos investigation.

Full Article and Source:
Local Lawyer Charged

See Also:
Steven T. Rondos Facing 6-18 Years in Prison

NASGA's "An Open Letter to Congress and the White House"