Courts and Law Brooklyn Boro

Former congressional candidate gets 1-3 years for stealing from Brooklyn clients

March 2, 2023 Rob Abruzzese
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP.
Share this:

Former want-to-be politician and disbarred attorney Raleigh Douglas Herbert, 61, from Chatham, New Jersey, was sentenced to one to three years in prison on Wednesday for stealing approximately $575,000 in settlement funds from two dozen clients in Brooklyn, as well as approximately $96,000 in COVID-19 relief funds.

He pleaded guilty to second- and third-degree grand larceny in December 2022.

“This defendant repeatedly violated his oath as an attorney and betrayed the trust of his clients by pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement money and COVID-19 relief funds to which he was not entitled,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

Subscribe to our newsletters

“Criminal conduct in the legal profession is unacceptable, and today’s sentence sends a strong message that it will be prosecuted vigorously by my Office. I would like to thank the Lawyers’ Fund for reimbursing the victims in this case and for the work it does to restore trust.”

From 2015 to 2021, Herbert embezzled approximately $493,000 from 16 of his clients in Brooklyn by depositing checks received from negotiated settlements into his attorney escrow account. The attorney, who represented clients in wrongful arrests and personal injury cases against New York City, lied to his clients about why they did not receive the money, which included blaming COVID-19 related court closures or claiming that the victims had liens that prevented him from paying them when no such liens existed.

Herbert spent much of the embezzled funds on various personal expenses and unrelated debts.

According to the evidence, the defendant stole approximately $96,000 by filing fraudulent loan applications through the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) run by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The defendant was arrested on February 1, 2022, and again on May 2, 2022, under two separate indictments which were then combined. The defendant was arrested for a third time, on December 7, 2022, on a felony complaint charging him with stealing approximately $77,000 from eight additional clients who came forward following his second arrest.

Herbert was suspended from practicing law in New York State in March 2021, but continued to represent a client in a wrongful death lawsuit against the New York City Police Department. The defendant did not tell the client – who was set to receive a $750,000 settlement – that he had been suspended.

Herbert was disbarred in June 2022.

The Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection of the State of New York has reimbursed a total of approximately $470,000 to 16 of the defendant’s victims.

“The theft of law client money is not only a crime but a profound violation of the trust placed in lawyers,” said Michael Knight, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection. “On behalf of the over 351,000 members of New York’s legal profession, the Lawyers’ Fund strives to restore that trust by reimbursing the financial harm caused by the statistically few in our profession who cause such losses. The New York Lawyers’ Fund is tremendously grateful to the Kings County District Attorney’s office for its invaluable assistance to our Fund in making meaningful restitution to the victimized law clients of Mr. Herbert.”

In 2010, Herbert challenged for New Jersey’s 11th District in the U.S. House of Representatives race against Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen.


Leave a Comment

Related Articles

Leave a Comment