South Florida Feds: Recently Disbarred Lawyer Looted $2.4M In Client Cash From Trust Account

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• A disbarred Fort Lauderdale attorney faces a mail fraud charge with federal authorities suspecting him of embezzling more than $2.4 million from clients.

• Joseph Sindaco, 62, lost his law license last month after admitting during Florida Bar proceedings he misappropriated about $445,000 from two clients. He had practiced law in South Florida for three decades, specializing in estate and trust cases and real estate closings, court records show.

• Federal court documents indicate that from April 2006 to December, he used clients' trust money for his own personal expenses. Prosecutors filed the mail fraud charge against him last week, accusing him of failing to distribute $318,000 to the family of a retired tool and die maker who died in 2008.(1)

For more, see Disbarred Fort Lauderdale attorney suspected of embezzling $2.4 million of clients' money (Joseph Sindaco has been charged with mail fraud).

(1) At the risk of solidifying my status as persona non grata among some of my "friends and colleagues" in the legal profession, I repeat the following (now-nauseating for some) reminder:

The victims in this story may be able to turn to the The Florida Bar's Clients' Security Fund (which was created to help reimburse clients for money they may have lost because of misappropriation or embezzle­ment by their attorneys) to recover some, if not all, of the swindled money.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that sometimes help cover the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.