In the following press release Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that two attorneys have been charged separately with looting their respective escrow accounts and failing to return money they had been holding for clients.

District Attorney Brown said, “According to the charges, the defendants not only violated the trust that their clients placed in them but they let down the entire legal system which counts on members of the bar to conduct themselves in an ethical matter. Each of the attorneys has been disbarred, and each now faces serious criminal charges.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants as Arelia Taveras, 46, presently of Bloomington , Minnesota , and another person in a non Mortgage/Real Estate related matter. Taveras, who is accused of stealing a total of $99,142 from four clients, is charged with three counts of third-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and scheme to defraud. Jacobs is charged with second-degree grand larceny for allegedly stealing $91,564 from a client. If convicted, Taveras faces up to seven years in prison and Jacobs faces up to 15 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to a criminal complaint, Taveras accepted $2,500 from a buyer as a contract deposit and an additional $22,500 as a down payment on a cooperative apartment in Bayside that the defendant was selling. It is alleged further that the buyer’s application was subsequently denied by the cooperative board, but when she tried to get her deposit back Taveras allegedly refused. After numerous requests, according to the criminal complaint, the buyer received a call from Taveras’ lawyer stating that she would not repay the money and that she was in a rehabilitation center in Colorado.

In addition, according to the criminal complaint, Taveras is accused of ripping off three clients including one who retained her in connection with a real estate transaction. The complaint charges that Taveras failed to release $10,000 of the client’s money that was held in escrow. Another client was allegedly bilked of $30,000 after retaining the defendant to represent her in the sale of commercial real estate. And finally, Taveras is accused of stealing $34,142 from a third client who allegedly retained her to represent him in connection with a divorce proceeding.

It is further alleged that according to a videotaped statement submitted to the grievance committee of the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, in response to one of the allegations of theft, Taveras said she took client money because of a gambling addiction and that she was remorseful. Later, she allegedly told detectives that she was a personal friend of the president of the Dominican Republic and that she could disappear in the Dominican Republic and never be found if she chose to do so. Taveras also allegedly told detectives that she could not believe she was being arrested, that the alleged thefts were not a big deal and that she would pay back all of the money. Taveras was disbarred in June 2007.

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Press Release