By Jeff Lipton
The 60-year-old disbarred attorney, who had practiced law for 30 years, was sentenced by Nassau County Court Judge John Kase on Thursday, Oct. 30, receiving triple the time he was originally expected to receive after victims came forward to tell of his heartless actions.
In one case, he stole $300,000 from a Rockville Centre woman in a personal injury settlement by pressuring the insurance company to immediately give him the check because he said she desperately needed the money for her young daughter's heart surgery.
“Hopefully, Mr. Levine will spend his time in prison thinking about how he violated his clients’ trust,” said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. “These people were vulnerable and he took advantage of them.”
He also bilked $10,000 from an Elmont woman on the down payment for the sale of a home and $30,000 in real estate proceeds from an Oceanside couple, Rice said.
In addition to his 3-to-9-year prison term, Levine has been ordered to pay $432,500 to a client protection fund, which will then reimburse the victims. He pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny on July 14.
In December 2006, Levine strongly advised the Rockville Centre woman, Melissa Seganti, to settle a personal injury lawsuit that awarded her $300,000. On Dec. 27, 2006, Levine traveled to Pennsylvania to pressure the insurance company to issue the check immediately because Seganti's daughter was about to undergo a heart operation. The insurance company handed the check to Levine, who then forged the signatures of his client and her husband and deposited the check into his account at Signature Bank in Woodmere.
In January, Levine pleaded guilty to grand larceny and the judge was committed to sentence him to one to three years in prison. But right before sentencing on Feb. 19, Seganti made an impassioned plea to the judge to lengthen the prison time for Levine. The judge then upped his promised sentence to three-to-nine years and gave Levine a chance to withdraw his plea and face a jury. If he were found guilty during a jury trial, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison.
In a phone interview days after her plea to the judge, Seganti told the Herald she was thrilled the judge reconsidered Levine's sentence. “I think that being an attorney, Mr. Levine should be held to a much higher standard,” Seganti said at the time. “He knew what he was doing [was wrong] and he did it anyway.”
She said that at the time, her 20-month-old daughter was actually set to undergo heart surgery and Levine used that as an excuse to pad his own wallet.
Seganti won the settlement for injuries she suffered during a 2004 construction accident at her home when she hurt her wrist and knee after sheet-rock fell on her, Levine's attorney had said.
Levine's bank account showed the $300,000 deposit being made on Dec. 28, 2006, and by March 2007, after months of writing checks, Levine's balance stood at negative $139.44, the DA said.
The Lawyer's Fund for Client Protection has reimbursed the Rockville Centre woman $250,000, the DA said.
In the Elmont case, the victim was in the process of buying a home in May 2007, when her real estate attorney recommended several lawyers that would be able to draw up the contract of sale. She chose Levine and gave him a $10,000 down payment on a home. When the sale fell through in June 2007, the woman requested that the money be returned to her. However, he suggested that he hold onto the money in case she could resurrect the real estate deal. He did not return her money, despite several calls to his office, the DA said.
Levine was also convicted of stealing a $25,000 personal injury settlement check due to a homeless woman now living in the Bronx, $91,000 in a real estate scam from a Howard Beach man and $12,500 due a Woodside car crash victim, the DA said.
Levine’s attorney, Michael Soshnick, has said Levine suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after having served in the U.S. Air Force during Vietnam. Levine also has a compulsive gambling disorder, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to organized crime, Soshnick said. He was in so deep with his gambling debts that, according to the FBI, a court-authorized wiretap revealed that organized crime had taken out a “hit” on him, Soshnick added.
Levine filed an affidavit of resignation with the New York State Bar Association on April 6, and was disbarred on June 26, officials said.
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