STATEN ISLAND — The lawyer accused of embezzling nearly $2 million from a Staten Island Jewish Cemetery used it to replace money he stole from his other clients in order to buy a country club membership and fancy cars, prosecutors said.
In February, Timothy Griffin, 54, of Connecticut, was arrested for embezzling nearly $2 million from the United Hebrew Cemetery after he replaced the previous president, who was also arrested along with his wife for stealing money from the cemetery.
Griffin was arrested for a second time on Thursday and charged with stealing more than $1 million from his Westchester real-estate law firm clients' escrow accounts, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
At the law firm, Griffin took money from accounts given to him to be held for pending real-estate transactions to purchase a membership at Westchester’s Waccabuc Country Club, a BMW, a Lexus, pricey jewelry and more, Schneiderman said. Investigators only discovered he had stolen from his clients after he was arrested for taking money from the cemetery.
"Attorney-client privilege does not give lawyers the right to steal from clients in order to fund their own lavish lifestyle,” Schneiderman said.
“Clients must be able to trust their attorneys and abusing that trust is both unethical and illegal. Today’s arrest sends the message that there must be one set of rules for everyone.”
After he was appointed acting president of the cemetery, located at 122 Arthur Kill Rd., Griffin made wire transfers from the cemetery's account to replace his client's escrow funds, Schneiderman said.
Griffin made six unauthorized wire transfers from the cemetery's account into his own between 2012 and 2014 to cover the money he'd been taking from his clients for years, Schneiderman said.
After his latest arrest, Griffin was arraigned on Thursday and charged with seven counts of felony grand larceny, the attorney general said. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison, Schneiderman added.
His lawyer, Mark Geisser, did not respond for requests for comment.
