Joel Getreu, a disbarred lawyer that had offices in the Financial District, has been charged with stealing more than $450,000 in settlement funds intended for his clients, according Cyrus Vance, Jr., Manhattan’s district attorney.
He was charged in an indictment in New York State Supreme Court with a scheme to defraud in the first degree, and grand larceny in the second and third degrees, according to the D.A.
Getreu had an eponymous personal injury law practice on Nassau St. He is accused of stealing settlement funds from 14 clients by allegedly withdrawing their money from an interest-bearing account from September 2012 to December 2013, according to the D.A.
One of his clients was a 57-year-old woman who was severely crippled from a fall and was to use her settlement money for a wheelchair and specialized bed, prosecutors say.
Getreu was disbarred last August.
His lawyer, Franklin Rothman, told the New York Daily News that the money was used to care for Getreu’s cancer-stricken brother.
