Disbarred attorney gets 2 years in wire fraud scheme
Disbarred attorney Alice Belmonte leaves federal court in Central Islip on Tuesday. Credit: Danielle Silverman
A disbarred attorney from Wading River was sentenced Tuesday to 24 months in federal prison for a wire fraud scheme that duped investors out of $2 million in supposed real estate investments, officials said.
It was the second fraud conviction for Alice Belmonte, 53, who previously had served 30 months in state prison for operating a separate $4 million Ponzi scheme, officials said.
U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip also ordered Belmonte to pay $2 million in restitution to her victims as part of her latest conviction.
“Alice Belmonte, falsely holding herself out as an experienced practicing attorney, prevailed upon investors to trust her with their money and stole it from them,” Eastern District U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement. “With today’s sentence, she has been held responsible for her crime.”
Before she was sentenced, Belmonte asked for leniency, acknowledging that when she committed her crimes, “I was completely out of control … what I did was terrible and I take full responsibility. [But] I am not what I was in 2013.”
Belmonte’s attorney, Brian Waller, had argued that his client should get probation because both schemes were actually part of a single continuing fraud, and that Belmonte had led an exemplary life both in prison and after she got out in April 2016.
Belmonte was indicted on federal wire fraud charges a month after her release, in May 2016, in a case that predated her state conviction, officials said.
Waller denied that his client had claimed she was still an attorney during the scheme. She was disbarred in February 2013, and she ran the real estate scheme from March to June of 2013, officials said.
Eastern District federal prosecutor Arthur McConnell said that the state and federal cases involved two different crimes, separate schemes and separate victims.
Further, McConnell said, in asking that Belmonte be sentenced to within the guideline range of 46 to 57 months, she had failed to help officials in recovering the investors’ $2 million.
McConnell said federal agents, a private investigative firm, and a federal bankruptcy trustee seeking to recover money for the victims had failed to locate any of the people to whom Belmonte said she passed the money.
The three investors whom Belmonte victimized were devastated, with one no longer affording to send his children to college and a second losing his business, McConnell said.
Waller said his client had cooperated as best she could and that the $2 million wasn’t hidden away.
In imposing the 24-month sentence, Hurley said he agreed that starting with her time in state prison, Belmonte had led an outstanding life, aiding prisoners and guards, setting up an online site for counseling people who were incarcerated, bonding with her young daughter, and impressing employers.
But, Hurley said, she had committed two separate serious crimes and deserved to be punished for each.
Belmonte, defense attorney Waller and prosecutor McConnell all declined to comment afterward.
Bob Kessler covers federal law, including law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, IRS and ATF, as well as the federal courts.
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