Another Elderly Lawyer Winds Up Career Caught w/ Hand In Cookie Jar: 69-Year Old Suspect Pleads Guilty To Looting $600K+ While Acting As Trustee Over Investment Account, Then Lied To Client/Trust Beneficiary By Saying Reduction In Principal Due To Deducted Legal Bills

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (New York City):

• Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HAROLD JAMES PICKERSTEIN, 69, of Fairfield, Connecticut, waived his right to indictment and pled guilty [...] in federal court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to one count of mail fraud related to his theft of more than $600,000 from a client’s investment account.
  
  According to court documents and statements made in court, PICKERSTEIN, an attorney, represented an individual (“Victim 1”) and served as the trustee for an investment account (the “Trust Account”) held for the benefit of Victim 1. Between approximately August 2011 and October 2013, PICKERSTEIN withdrew $613,216.20 from the Trust Account without authorization from Victim 1 and used the funds to pay for personal expenses, including payments to state and federal tax authorities to satisfy his tax liabilities.
  
  In November 2013, PICKERSTEIN was to disburse all remaining funds in the Trust Account to Victim 1. After Victim 1 questioned PICKERSTEIN as to why the disbursed funds were less than Victim 1 expected, PICKERSTEIN sent a letter to Victim 1 in which he falsely represented that a portion of the Trust Account’s funds had been deducted to pay legal bills.(1)
  
  PICKERSTEIN faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of approximately $1.2 million, and $633,410.04 in restitution.
  
  PICKERSTEIN resigned from the Connecticut bar in December 2014.
  
  This matter has been investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Nardini.
  
  The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has been overseeing the case because of the recusal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

Source: Connecticut Attorney Admits Stealing More Than $600k From Client’s Trust Account.

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(1) The victim may be able to recover at least some of his losses by submitting a ripoff claim to the Client Security Fund, a fund established by the rules of the Connecticut Superior Court to provide reimbursement to individuals who have lost money or property as a result of the dishonest conduct of an attorney practicing law in the State of Connecticut, in the course of the attorney-client relationship. The fund provides a remedy for clients who are unable to obtain reimbursement for their loss from any other source.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that attempt to clean up the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (now includes a listing for Canadian client protection funds, 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.

See generally:

• N.Y. fund for cheated clients wants thieving lawyers disbarred, a July, 2015 Associated Press story on this Fund reporting that the Fund's executive director, among other things, is calling for prompt referral to the local district attorney when the disciplinary committee has uncontested evidence of theft by a lawyer injuring a client or an admission of culpability;
  
  When Lawyers Steal the Escrow, a June, 2005 New York Times story describing some cases of client reimbursements ("With real estate business surging and down-payment amounts rising with home prices, the temptation for a lawyer to filch money from a bulging escrow account and later repay it with other clients' money has never been greater, said lawyers who monitor the thefts."),
  
  Thieving Lawyers Draining Client Security Funds, a December, 1991 New York Times story that gives some-real life examples of how client security funds deal with claims and the pressures the administrators of those funds may feel when left insufficiently financed as a result of the misconduct of a handful of lawyer/scoundrels.