Crime & Safety

DA: Man Charged in $4.3M Real Estate Forgery

Disbarred lawyer forged paperwork to steal millions from clients, said DA.

A former lawyer from Old Westbury faces up to 25 years in prison for stealing over $4 million from clients in real estate deals, according to the Nassau County District Attorney's office. 

James Kalpakis, 52, of Old Westbury, was arraigned Monday in front of a grand jury on a battery of charges stemming from accusations that he forged paperwork in real estate deals. 

Nassau DA Kathleen Rice said that from 2008 to 2011, Kalpakis stole about $4.315 million from five clients he represented in real estate deals.  

In Sept. 2008, the DA said Kalpakis submitted a forged power of attorney in his wife's name to get a $1.1 million mortgage loan from a bank so he could refinance a home he and his wife owned. He was given a check made payable to him for $402,152 at closing, Rice said. The balance of the loan was used to pay off the existing mortgage but Kalpakis stopped paying the loan in Dec. 2009, Rice said. 

Kalpakis had been suspended from practicing law in 2005 and was disbarred when he resigned in Sept. 2009, said Rice. 

Kalpakis obtained several other sums of money through illegal dealings, including taking $1.3 million using forged deeds, over $400,000 from different clients by mishandling escrow deposits, $500,000 by claiming he would invest it in Texas fuel leases, $750,000 in a mortgage loan from a private investment firm, and more, said Rice. 

“The sheer amount of money this defendant stole is shocking, but the lengths to which he went to repeatedly victimize innocent people reveal just what kind of person Mr. Kalpakis truly is,” Rice said. “Eventually, however, he became caught in his own web of deception.” 

Kalpakis was originally arrested in January 2011 and charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of a false instrument, said Kathleen Rice. 

Kalpakis is currently charged with two counts of first degree grand larceny, five counts of second degree grand larceny, four counts of third degree grand larceny, 10 counts of second degree criminal possession of a frigid instrument, and two counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. 

Kalpakis returns to court June 4.


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