Probe of Slain Lawyer Leads to Allegations of Scam Involving His Law Firm
A probe into the 2008 murder of Brooklyn divorce lawyer Mark Schwartz and his wife has led to charges of mortgage fraud, larceny and other wrongdoing against his longtime pal and three others.
Schwartz’s longtime friend Robert Delvicario is the accused mastermind, report the New York Post, the New York Daily News and the North Country Gazette.
According to the New York Daily News, “Prosecutors say the four people busted Monday were in cahoots with the couple to steal $1 million from clients” of Schwartz’s law firm.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told the Daily News, “In attempting to find out a motive for these murders, my office and the NYPD uncovered a web of mortgage fraud, identity theft, larceny [and] money laundering.” Hynes says the defendants used straw buyers in real estate transactions, the North Country Gazette reports.
Hynes said investigators believe Delvicario and two other defendants turned on Schwartz and stole several blank checks from the law office. When the three tried to forge a check in May 2008, the bank called Schwartz and he refused to authorize it, Hynes told the New York Daily News. After the couple’s death, forged checks were cashed for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the story says.
None of those charged in the alleged financial scams have been charged in the two murders.
