Federal Conviction Leads To State Disbarment
Disbarment has been imposed by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department
On September 6, 2018, upon his guilty plea, respondent was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, of conspiracy to defraud the United States in violation of 18 USC § 371, and tax evasion in violation of 26 USC § 7201, both felonies. On January 18, 2019, respondent was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Respondent’s conviction stemmed from his participation in a complex tax evasion scheme whereby he embezzled over $3 million from a client’s estate. These ill-gotten gains were used to purchase a Southampton mansion and hire an interior decorator. In addition, he filed false tax returns and made misrepresentations and presented falsified documents to an IRS auditor.
The conviction is “essentially similar” to a New York state felony
For purposes of this determination, the felony in the other jurisdiction need not be a mirror image of the New York felony, precisely corresponding in every detail, but it must have “essential similarity” (Matter of Margiotta, 60 NY2d 147, 150 [1983]). Here, respondent’s federal felony convictions under 18 USC § 371 and 26 USC § 7201 are “essentially similar” to New York felony convictions for offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree (Penal Law § 175.35[1]) and scheme to defraud in the first degree (Penal Law § 190.65[1][b]), based on respondent’s plea admissions read in conjunction with the two counts of the indictment to which he pled guilty (see Matter of Doonan, 157 AD3d 44, 47 [1st Dept 2017]; Matter of Porges, 297 AD2d 1 [1st Dept 2002]; Matter of Vagionis, 241 AD2d 276 [1st Dept 1998]).
Newsday reported on the criminal sentencing
A Manhattan lawyer who ripped off money intended for charity from a wealthy Long Island client’s estate to buy himself a $3 million Southampton beach mansion and then didn’t pay taxes on it was sentenced to 37 months in prison in federal court Friday.
Steven Etkind, 56, of New City, New York, wanted no jail time for a complex scheme to divert money from the $35 million estate of Edwin Berger, the founder of Lambro Industries, an Amityville manufacturer, that was supposed to go to Jewish charities and animal care.
But Manhattan U.S. District Judge John Koeltl said the crime — which Etkind admitted trying to hide from an IRS audit by backdating documents transferring the Water Mill home to a Jewish group in New York City — was too serious to overlook.
“The defendant was making a substantial income and there is no explanation why he was in such need of a house in the Hamptons that he would risk all he had built up over the years,” the judge said. “But he did.”
Etkind, formerly a partner heading the tax, trusts and estate group at the Manhattan firm Sadis & Goldberg, didn’t comment after the sentencing, pulling a stocking cap over his head and racing through Chinatown in an unsuccessful effort to avoid a photo.
His lawyer, Duncan Levin, argued that Etkind’s effort to siphon money into the East End house and fool the IRS from 2009 to 2012 had been “aberrant.” He praised Koeltl for imposing a “just and fair” sentence at the low end of advisory federal guidelines of 37 to 46 months.
Etkind specialized in employee stock ownership plans and designed one for Lambro, a small company that makes dryer vents. He was named co-executor of Berger’s estate and co-trustee of trusts that were to be established under the will.
Prosecutors alleged that after Berger died in 2008, Etkind and a co-conspirator used phony charities and shell companies to make it appear that they were funding Jewish charities while siphoning off more than $3 million to buy the two-story 6,300-square-foot house with a swimming pool near the beach.
(Mike Frisch)