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.
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Cooperstown ex-lawyer's fraud conspirator sentenced
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!
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