Lawyer Stole $328,000 from Clients and Firm According to the FBI

Another estate planning attorney from New York has been arrested last week for allegedly stealing money from clients, but this time also from the firm that he was employed at. Albert Hessberg III, 63, worked at the firm of Barclay Damon from 1981 until he was fired this past March. “The FBI and federal prosecutors in Albany are still investigating Hessberg’s alleged thefts that could be in the range of $1 million to $3 million.” Hessberg is being charged with mail and wire fraud, and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Hessberg was the executor for a client only referred to as “A.R.” who left an estate of $550,000 when he died in 2007. The assets were to be left in a trust to the client’s wife, “C.R.,” and then trusts to benefit the couple’s children and grandchildren. When “C.R.” passed away in 2010, she also had an estate of about $314,000. The FBI claims that there is no evidence that Hessberg ever set up trusts for the couple’s children or grandchildren. Hessberg even emailed one of the beneficiaries and claimed, “that distributing the assets was complicated and he needed more time.”

See Robert Gavin, Feds: Lawyer Stole $328,000 from Clients, Firm, Times Union, June 14, 2018.