An Old Westbury man disbarred from practicing law admitted Thursday to stealing more than $4 million from clients he represented in several real estate deals, including one involving his own wife.
James Kalpakis, 52, pleaded guilty before Judge Philip Grella in Nassau County Court on first and second-degree charges of grand larceny for stealing approximately $4.315 million from five clients he represented in various real estate ventures between September 2008 and January 2011, according to a press release from Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s office.
“This defendant spun lie after lie in order to steal millions from innocent people whose only crime was placing their trust in the wrong man,” Rice said in a statement. “Mr. Kalpakis proved himself to be nothing more than a con man, and now he faces a lengthy prison sentence for his actions.”
In one instance, Kalpakis illegally obtained a 30-year, $1.1 million mortgage loan to refinance a home his wife owned by submitting a forged power of attorney in her name and signing the agreement in her absence, according to Rice’s office.
Kalpakis received a check for $402,152 in his name when the deal closed, and paid off the balance of the loan using the existing mortgage. But he stopped making payments in December 2009, without his wife knowing the loan existed.
Between October and December 2009, Kalpakis stole $1.3 million from a client to whom he sold two homes with forged deeds from banks that did not actually own the properties, according to Rice’s office.
Kalpakis stole an additional $290,000 from that same client earlier that year by not returning the client’s escrow deposit on the purchase of a home that fell through, and took $500,000 as part of another deal in which he promised the funds would be invested in oil, gas and mineral leases in Texas that involved Kalpakis’s brother.
In June 2010, Kalpakis stole $750,000 on a one-year mortgage loan from a private investment firm by representing himself as the attorney on behalf of the owners of a residential property – one of whom his 2009 victim – and providing the lender with a forged power of attorney allowing him to collect on the loan, according to Rice’s office.
Kalpakis then sold one of his previous victims’ properties to a new client for $150,000 between August and September 2010, providing forged documents giving himself the authority to sell it.
Kalpakis stole $100,000 in escrow deposits toward the purchase of a home from a different victim in between October and April 2009, according to Rice’s office. The sale fell through, but Kalpakis did not return the escrow funds.
Rice said Kalpakis stole $150,000 from a different victim between August and September 2010 by selling him a property owned by the same victim he stole from the previous year, providing him with forged documents giving Kalpakis the authority to sell it.
Rice also said that Kalpakis had stolen $80,000 from a single victim on three separate occasions, the first between August 2010 and January 2011 when he stole $33,000 from the victim from the purchase of a home that fell through.
In October 2010, he allegedly stole $35,000 from the client by promising he would sign over a $42,000 settlement in a civil case that would be received later and net the client a $7,000 profit. In reality, Rice said, there was no lawsuit, no client and no pending settlement.
Kalpakis pulled the scam on the victim again in November 2010, stealing $12,000 while promising a $3,000 profit.
Also in 2010, Kalpakis stole $45,000 in escrow deposits from a different client who sought to purchase a home, according to Rice’s office. Kalpakis did not return the funds despite the sale falling through.
According to Rice’s office, Grella has committed to issuing a prison sentence of three and a third to 10 years, though the district attorney recommended a sentence between five to 15 years.
Kalpakis will be sentenced Dec. 3.
