Disbarred Ex-Lawmaker's Insurance Fraud Trial a Long, Strange Trip; 2 Mortgage Fraud Trials Await
In the latest chapter of the continuing saga of a once-prominent real estate lawyer and suburban New York lawmaker’s downfall, George Guldi was disbarred last week by the state Supreme Court Appellate Division, as a brief written opinion (PDF) notes.
Expected to last perhaps a week, the former Suffolk County lawmaker’s insurance fraud trial earlier this year in Long Island, N.Y., was nearing the one-month mark when the New York Observer painted a word picture of how Guldi, defending himself pro se, was pulling out the stops in an effort to salvage his good name and once-thriving real-estate business and law practice.
A millionaire whose assets had then been frozen, Guldi was still sporting his trademark bow ties but had been wearing a visibly frayed suit. At issue was whether he pocketed a $853,000 insurance company check that was supposed to be escrowed and used to reconstruct his Westhampton Beach home after a fire.
“This insurance check was my money, not the bank’s,” he contended at one point. “They’re prosecuting me for taking my own money!”
He also queried a witness at length about the color of the check.
By this point in the trial, the judge was often sustaining the prosecutor’s objections before they are even articulated, the Observer recounted in a lengthy article describing the trial as “bizarre.” Meanwhile, an apparently frustrated Assistant District Attorney Thalia Stavrides spent much of at least one afternoon with her eyes closed, rubbing her temples, as Guldi proceeded with his defense.
Convicted in February after this trial and sentenced to a 4- to 12-year prison term, Guldi, now 57, still faces two more mortgage fraud trials involving a claimed $82 million, a dominatrix and the owner of a fetish photography shop.
The first of the two trials had been about to begin this week, but has now been postponed, reports Newsday (sub. req.).
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “NY Lawyers & Dominatrix Accused of Running $50M Mortgage Fraud Scheme”
Hat tip: Legal Profession Blog.
