A man convicted of conspiring with a former Cooperstown lawyer to
steal millions of dollars was sentenced Thursday to a term in prison.
According
to a media release from the U.S. Department of Justice Northern
District of New York, Richard J. Sherwood, 59, Guilderland, was
sentenced to 54 months in federal prison for conspiring to steal
approximately $11.8 million from estates for which he served as an
attorney and fiduciary. He appeared in federal court in Albany.
Senior
United States District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn also ordered Sherwood to
serve a one-year term of supervised release, to pay $5,560,505 in
restitution, and to forfeit 12 bank and brokerage accounts, and a house
overlooking Galway Lake in Saratoga County.
In
a related case prosecuted by the New York Attorney General’s Office,
Sherwood pleaded guilty in Albany County Court to first-degree grand
larceny. He will be sentenced to a concurrent term of 3 to 10 years in
state prison on that charge, the release said.
Sherwood’s
co-conspirator, Thomas K. Lagan of Cooperstown, was sentenced on Dec. 11
to 78 months in federal prison, to run concurrent with a state sentence
of four to 12 years in prison.
United States Attorney Grant C.
Jaquith said in the release, “Our society depends on attorneys to be
honest and ethical. Richard Sherwood desecrated that trust when he stole
millions of dollars from clients who relied on him to transfer their
money to churches and other beneficiaries after they died. His
seven-year criminal conspiracy is all the more disturbing because
Sherwood was also Guilderland Town Justice at the time. Today’s sentence
punishes Sherwood for his despicable conduct and requires him to repay
every last dime that he stole.”
Sherwood practiced primarily in
the area of trusts and estates. Starting in about 2006, the release
said, he provided estate planning and related legal services to Capital
Region philanthropists Warren and Pauline Bruggeman, and to Pauline’s
sister, Anne Urban, all of Niskayuna. Sherwood was advising the
Bruggemans when, in 2006, they signed wills directing that all their
assets go to charities, churches and civic organizations, aside from
bequests to Anne Urban and Julia Rentz, Pauline’s other sister.
Warren
Bruggeman died in April 2009, and Pauline died in August 2011. At the
time of her death, Pauline had personal and trust assets valued at
approximately $20 million.
Sherwood
admitted that he and Lagan stole $11,831,563, and that nearly $3.6
million was transferred outright to him, with an additional $1.96
million transferred to an entity, Empire Capital Trust LLC, that he and
Lagan controlled. Sherwood also admitted that he transferred to himself
the Bruggeman family camp located on Galway Lake.
Sherwood
admitted that he and Lagan induced Anne Urban to create a trust whose
purpose, unknown to her, was to allow him and Lagan to transfer assets
to themselves. Sherwood and Lagan also set up more than 10 bank
accounts, and created a limited liability company (Empire Capital Trust
LLC), to first conceal the theft of the money and then transfer the
money to themselves.
Sherwood pleaded guilty to filing false
federal tax returns in 2013 and 2015. Those returns were false because
he did not report, as other income, about $4.7 million that he received
from the fraudulent scheme, the release said.
Sherwood served as
Guilderland Town Justice from 2014 until his arrest on Feb. 23, 2018. He
resigned his position on March 5, 2018. He was disbarred on Sept. 13,
2018.
Full Article & Source:
Cooperstown ex-lawyer's fraud conspirator sentenced
1 comment:
Amazes me over and over that people like this exist. Exploiting the dead. I can't imagine what kind of person you'd need to be to commit a crime like this. For one thing, they were bound to be caught. I'm so glad they were!
Post a Comment