Convicted, Foreclosure Scamming Attorney Gets Bagged Again For Alleged Unpunished Theft Of $1.8 Million From Her Escrow Account Occurring Prior To Earlier Conviction

In Suffolk County, New York, the Riverhead News-Review reports:

• A disbarred Wading River attorney previously convicted in a $4 million real estate Ponzi scheme was indicted last month for wire fraud in connection with an alleged theft that occurred prior to her conviction, according to a federal indictment.
  
  Alice Belmonte, 49, bilked two California real estate investment companies out of approximately $1.8 million in March 2013, according to a May 12 grand jury indictment. Her latest arrest came just over one month after she was released from prison, New York State Division of Parole records show.
  
  Ms. Belmonte had pleaded guilty in July 2014 to felony larceny, forgery and theft charges stemming from a foreclosure scam in which prosecutors said she forged contracts, faked e-mails from banks and signed her victims’ names for them while she bought new cars and took vacations to California with the stolen funds.
  
  She was sentenced to serve three to 9 years in state prison, but was granted an early release on April 11, state records show.
  
  At her latest arraignment in Eastern District Court of New York May 19, Ms. Belmonte pleaded not guilty to two charges of wire fraud and was released on a $500,000 bond, court records show.
  
  A company connected to her most recent arrest, which was not named in the indictment, has alleged that $1.8 million it had wired to an escrow account Ms. Belmonte set up for real estate investments was redirected in March 2013 to her personal bank account after she forged “fraudulent disbursement instructions” in the name of one of the companies to the escrow company involved in the transaction.

For more, see Convicted Wading River Ponzi schemer indicted — again.