Thursday, October 1, 2026
A Bellmore attorney who was disbarred last year was arrested for the second time Thursday and charged with stealing more than $500,000 from an estate that he represented, according to Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.
Robert Alan Wagner, 63, was arraigned Thursday on the charge of second-degree grand larceny.
In a release, Singas said that Wagner was first arrested and charged with in September for allegedly stealing more than $400,000 from an estate that he represented. At that time, he was released on $200,000 bail with a requirement that he wear a tracking device and surrender his passport.
Wagner was retained by the administrator of a French estate to facilitate the transfer of money from the decedent's Suffolk County-based bank accounts to accounts in France in November 2013. He was not authorized to distribute, transfer or use the estate funds, but an investigation revealed that Wagner allegedly transferred the estate funds into four of his own Nassau County-based bank accounts between June 2014 and January 2016, ultimately stealing more than $500,000, according to investigators.
Between May 2014 and April 2015, the French estate administrator repeatedly attempted to contact Wagner to verify the status of the funds transfer. During that time, Wagner allegedly gave false excuses, saying that he was attending to personal and family health issues, was on vacation, or was awaiting for court approval to transfer funds. He used the money for personal purposes, including cash withdrawals in excess of $250,000 and payments to support his law practice, officials said.
Wagner was legally practicing law when he was retained, but was disbarred by the Appellate Division of the New York State Court of Appeals on March 11, 2015, for unrelated reasons, Singas said.
"This defendant allegedly abused the trust placed in him as an attorney and stole more than $500,000 from the estate of a deceased man," Singas said. "We will aggressively prosecute this case and seek restitution for the victim."
Wagner's attorney, Joel Weiss, of Uniondale, could not be reached for comment by press time. In a previous Herald story, however, Weiss said that Wagner had "paid back every cent to the beneficiaries,and in addition, surrendered his law license."
If convicted, Wagner faces up to five to 15 years in prison. He is due back in court on Dec. 2.
