Disbarred lawyer sentenced for scamming hopeful Brooklyn buyers

A disbarred lawyer has been sentenced to 11 to 22 years in prison after being convicted of stealing more than $1 million via various scams connected to two distressed properties in southwest Brooklyn, announced Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

According to Gonzalez, Staten Island resident Domenick Crispino, 53, who graduated from Georgetown Law in 1987 and was convicted of felony larceny in 2001, this time pocketed more than $1 million by making bogus sales of two Brooklyn homes that he didn’t own by pretending to be an attorney and filing forged documents, including a deed falsely claiming that a house had been sold to him for just $10.

Crispino was arraigned in October of 2015 on a 21-count indictment alleging that, between February, 2011 and June, 2015, he engaged in various schemes to enrich himself from two private homes – one at 35 Bay Seventh Street in Bath Beach and the other at 1848 West Seventh Street in Gravesend – that were subject to foreclosure.

He was convicted on March 31 of this year on numerous counts of second-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first degree falsifying business records.

Crispino was disbarred in 1999 amid allegations of felony larceny, of which he was also later convicted. Based on the convictions from three separate felony larceny indictments in Manhattan, he was deemed a predicate felon.

“This defendant can only be described as a financial predator, stealing as much money as he could from as many victims as he could find,” said Gonzalez. “Using his knowledge of the law, he repeatedly exploited the victims to enrich himself. I will not allow con artists to profit from Brooklyn’s rising home values, and my office will continue to target shameful frauds like these.”

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