Great Neck lawyer Daniel Spitalnic sentenced to 1 to 3 years

Janelle Clausen
Daniel Spitalnic. (Photo courtesy of Nassau County District Attorney's Office)

Great Neck lawyer Daniel Spitalnic was sentenced on Tuesday to one to three years in prison for embezzling a down payment and fraudulently securing a mortgage loan, the Nassau County district attorney’s office said.

In imposing the sentence, acting Supreme Court Justice Meryl Berkowitz also ordered him to pay $496,602.39 in restitution.

Spitalnic, 39, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree grand larceny on March 28.

“Attorneys are barred from commingling client funds with their own, but this defendant flagrantly violated his ethical obligations and our criminal laws when he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients and his former mother-in-law,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said.

Singas said Spitalnic obtained a $300,000 loan in March 2015 by falsely representing himself as the part owner and officer of a corporation owned by his former mother-in-law. That loan was secured by a mortgage on a commercial property in Great Neck.

His mother-in-law became aware of suspicious activity in May 2015 when she learned her real estate taxes were already paid by a title company and confronted Spitalnic. He said he took out the mortgage because he owed money and said he would repay her.

He then gave her a Satisfaction of Mortgage document claiming the loan was satisfied, but the document, filed with the Nassau County clerk’s office, was a forgery, the district attorney’s office said.

Spitalnic “used the money on rent, travel, entertainment, food and other miscellaneous expenses,” the district attorney’s office said.

Spitalnic also represented a family selling a home in Manhasset in June 2015. Singas said Spitalnic was supposed to hold a $171,500 down payment in escrow. The escrow money, minus $7,460 due to a title insurance company, was not received by the sellers. The $7,460 check issued to a the title insurance company failed to clear because of insufficient funds in the escrow account, officials said.

Spitalnic also admitted to the theft of about $25,000 from another client, which was included as part of the overall restitution, the district attorney’s office said.

Marshall Trager, bureau chief of the Government and Consumer Frauds Bureau, prosecuted both cases. Spitalnic is represented by Greg LaMarca.

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