E. Hampton embezzler sentenced to 1 year

An East Hampton lawyer was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in federal prison for masterminding a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud.

Federal probation officials had recommended that Steven Leff, 47, of 15 Anvil Ct., be sentenced to 3 years in prison, but U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein in Central Islip imposed the lesser sentence after she noted that federal prosecutors had requested leniency because Leff was cooperating on another unspecified fraud investigation and that he was raising his two children by himself.

Feuerstein also delayed imposing any restitution on Leff after both his attorney, Jeff Hoffman, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Green said they had not yet determined the actual amount of loss, though the government previously had said it might be as much as $13 million. Leff pleaded guilty in June 2008.

Before he was sentenced, Leff, who was president of The National Settlement Agency, with offices in Melville and Manhattan, apologized profusely for his actions and said he felt like "a hypocrite," because he has raised his children to always do the right thing and yet he had acted criminally in embezzling money from his firm and clients.

Leff's company was the settlement agent for a number of FDIC-insured banks across the country, according to court papers. The company's job was to distribute money involved in the refinancing of mortgages to the various people and institutions involved in the transactions, the papers said.

But instead of passing the money on, Leff pocketed it for his own use, the papers said.