Ex-East Rockaway attorney Bret Votano sentenced to jail time for defrauding 5 clients during real estate deals, Nassau DA says
An East Rockaway attorney was sentenced Wednesday to 20 days in jail and ordered to pay restitution to five victims he admitted to stealing nearly $300,000 from during real estate transactions, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said.
Bret Christopher Votano, 45, pleaded guilty to grand larceny Feb. 16, court records show.
He was ordered by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Bogle to pay $65,000 in upfront restitution to one of his victims and was given a restitution order to reimburse the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection for payments the organization made to the other victims, prosecutors said in a news release.
“[Votano] used his reputation as an attorney with experience in real estate matters to swindle his clients, and other victims involved in various property transactions, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars they entrusted to him,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “When the sales fell through, so did communication with [Votano]. Today, we are holding him accountable for his deceit and making his victims whole.”
Prosecutors said Votano, who has since been disbarred, stole the funds from escrow accounts during real estate transactions he handled through his company, Votano Law Group, PLLC, from 2016 to 2019.
One victim and a business partner who hired Votano to represent them at foreclosure auctions gave the attorney $65,000 in December 2017 to hold for future real estate transactions, prosecutors said. When the victim asked for the funds back three months later, Votano did not comply with multiple requests.
Two other clients gave Votano about $100,000 each to be held in escrow, which went unreturned despite the transactions never closing, prosecutors said. In one instance a sale was canceled in Suffolk County in 2018. In the other, Votano stopped responding to a client in Queens before the 2016 closing date.
Other victims lost $10,000 and $5,000 in botched deals, prosecutors said.
Votano, who records show had practiced law since 2004, was disbarred by the New York State Appellate Division Second Department after failing to respond to a petition charging him with misappropriating client funds, failing to return funds and failing to cooperate with an investigation into the complaints filed by the five victims.
Votano turned himself in to Nassau County District Attorney investigators Feb. 16, court records show. The case was prosecuted by Lauren Littman of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Bureau.
Votano’s defense attorney, Brian Griffin, of Garden City, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
