Heirs Unapparent

An attorney convicted of theft offenses has consented to disbarment in Pennsylvania.

From the charging document

This investigation was commenced as the result of an anonymous tip made to the Public Corruption Task Force of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office regarding a person who was trying to steal real and personal property from the estate of an elderly woman who had recently passed away without heirs. As a result of our Grand Jury investigation, we uncovered a scheme to defraud the estate – and, in tum, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – that included eight individuals. The principals were Romanoff T. Quarles and his attorney, Andrew Kaufman, who used his position as an attorney at law to devise and execute the scheme. Others involved in disparate facets of the scheme were Vincent Marciano, a real estate agent who organized a sham sale of the estate’s real property; Antoine Turay and Marvin Kimble, who are involved in the funeral home industry and created a false funeral bill that Kaufman then used in a court filing; and Damian Rivers, who was involved with an authorized title agent of the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles and permitted a sham sale of the estate’s automobile.

The now former attorney’s sentencing is scheduled for today. (Mike Frisch)