A disbarred attorney from Old Westbury has been accused of using forged bank paperwork to steal more than $1.6 million from a client during a real estate deal.
James Kalpakis is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on charges of grand larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Prosecutors said the 50-year-old ex-attorney convinced a client of his to buy three properties in 2009, four years after he was suspended from practicing law while he was facing professional misconduct charges.
Kalpakis, who resigned from the bar in December 2009, allegedly gave the victim forged deeds for Old Westbury properties on Ridge Drive and Glen Cove Road for which the victim paid $825,000 and $500,000, respectively. The Ride Drive property was in fact Kalpakis’s wife’s home, prosecutors said.
The victim also gave Kalpakis $289,000 for a property on Cadillac Drive in East Meadow, prosecutors said. For that deal, Kalpakis allegedly gave the victim a confirmation letter from a fictitious third-party attorney.
Kalpakis faces up to 25 years in prison.