Salvatore Strazzullo, a New York attorney who has represented celebrities, was accused of stealing nearly $3.8 million from several Brooklyn (NYC) real estate clients, many of them elderly.
Strazzullo, 51, who represented clients including rapper Foxy Brown and a former nightclub owner accused of beating a member of the Monaco royal familywas arraigned Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court for grand theft and scheme to defraudreported Daily News.
This is the second indictment against Strazzullo, who was indicted in December for allegedly stealing about $1.5 million from three other Brooklyn real estate clients.
According to prosecutors, Strazzullo lived large using money from his clients’ home sales from June 2021 to last March running a Ponzi scheme by taking money from new clients to pay older ones.
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A high-profile New York lawyer is accused of stealing nearly $3.8 million from several Brooklyn real estate clients, many of them elderly.https://t.co/Dbk1kqWBe8
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) April 11, 2024
With other people’s money, Strazzullo apparently led a lifestyle of excess: $50,000 dollars in restaurants such as Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, Cipriani and Ponte Vecchio; almost $100,000 on a BMW and a driver; about $60,000 in hotels in Paris and Miami, and about $406,000 in rent for an apartment in Battery Park City, in Lower Manhattan. He also did cash withdrawals totaling approximately $970,000, prosecutors allege.
A story in The New York Times in 2012 he nicknamed him “the nightlife advocate” for his work representing not-so-well-known celebrities who also get into legal trouble while clubbing.
His clients that year included Adam Hock, who hit Prince Pierre Casiraghi of Monaco, grandson of Grace Kelly, during a melee on February 12, 2012 at “Double Seven” in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Hock received 10 days of community service after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.
Strazzullo, who was released yesterday without bail, did not return messages seeking comment. Neither did his lawyer.
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In a similar case, in March a woman pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme involving about $3.5 million over six years, when she was Director of Finance and Administration at the New York University (NYU).
2024-04-13 19:13:00
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