by Christopher Dornblaser
A Philadelphia-based former attorney will spend up to more than two years in prison for stealing almost $1 million from his cousin's estate.
On Monday, Aaron S. Friedmann, 63, was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in state prison for stealing $981,023 from Dr. Sheldon S. Farber, who had named Friedmann as the executor of his will, according to a Bucks County District Attorney's Office news release.
Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr. also sentenced Friedmann to 10 years of probation, and ordered he pay back what he stole.
The money, the DA's office said, was meant to go to charity organizations.
Friedmann, of Conshocken, pleaded guilty in August to theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and access device fraud. All charges are felonies.
Lower Southampton police began its investigation in March 2017, when a lawyer representing Farber's estate reported the theft. Farber died four years earlier.
The attorney told authorities that Farber created a will in December 2006, and named Friedmann the executor.
Friedmann was an attorney at the Disability Law Advocates Group in Philadelphia, and handled monetary aspects of Farber's estate, according to the DA's office.
Investigators found that a check for $200,000 was written out from Farber's estate and deposited into an account owned by the Disability Law Advocates Group in February 2013, the release states.
Officials found an additional 81 fraudulent transactions were committed by written checks or withdrawals from Farber's estate linked to the advocate group's account or Friedmann's personal account, according to authorities.
Friedmann's law license was suspended for his
handling of the estate in 2017. He was disbarred a year later, according
to state records.
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