Disbarred Garden City real estate attorney Daniel Boldi weeps as he is sentenced to prison for stealing millions from his clients

Disbarred Garden City real estate lawyer Daniel Boldi, who admitted stealing $6.2 million of his clients' money, wept in Nassau County Court on Tuesday just before being sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.

His tears did nothing for his victims sitting in the courtroom, they said, many of them current or former first responders still dealing with the fallout of Boldi’s scam.

Kenneth Bozier, who is retired from the Army Reserves and the New York State Police, said much of his retirement fund has been spent trying to compensate for the half a million dollars that Boldi’s scam cost him.

He said the former lawyer, who was disbarred in October 2024, represented the buyer of a home he owned in New Rochelle with his mother.

Boldi, 50, never transferred the money for the sale from escrow to Bozier’s bank, leaving him on the hook for $2,600 monthly mortgage payments on a property he no longer owns.

"I’m glad all these court officers are here because I’m afraid I’d do something stupid," he told Boldi before the sentencing.

"That was my retirement — that’s shot," he said. "I’m down $500,000, and the meter is still running. My mortgage is due to Rocket Mortgage in a couple of days; they don’t care."

Retired NYPD officer John Gavan, who sold his East Meadow home in 2023 to a family represented by Boldi, had a similar experience.

He said Boldi was supposed to transfer $309,000 to Gavan’s mortgage broker, but days later, the money never appeared.

Prosecutors said Boldi showed Gavan a doctored wire transfer receipt and they completed the sale of their home.

Boldi, however, never paid off the bank, leaving Gavan and his wife responsible for the mortgage.

"Every day was a nightmare, not knowing if our mortgage will ever be made whole," Gavan said in court. "My faith tells me that I should forgive you, but I don’t forgive you because you don’t care, you don’t care, you’re still trying to get out of this. Because you’re an attorney and you know the system, you manipulated it, and you will probably continue to try to manipulate after you get out."

Andrew Combs, who works as a volunteer EMT in Queens, said Boldi represented his Ridgewood volunteer ambulance group in the sale of their building, which was sold as they merged with the Woodhaven Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

The money from the sale was supposed to purchase new emergency vehicles for the group and pay for a substation in Jamaica to broaden the reach of the first responders.

He said that because of Boldi, the money disappeared.

"We have no access to that money because it no longer exists in that account," he said.

Although some of the money has been reimbursed by the Lawyer's Fund for Client Protection, a state fund that reimburses victims of unscrupulous lawyers, Combs' group was only paid $400,000, he said, leaving them still $250,000 in the hole.

"It was despicable, it was dishonest, it was a betrayal of his oath of office of his profession," Combs told the court. "Where do we get resolution from? Where do we get some compensation for what is lost?"

Prosecutors said 52 people in all fell victim to Boldi for a total of $6,206,368 from September 2020 to January 2024.

Defense attorney Michael R. Franzese said his client has never denied what he did, but his client’s judgment was clouded by a cocaine and alcohol addiction.

Boldi pleaded guilty to 13 counts of grand larceny and one count of a scheme to defraud at his arraignment in October 2024 and, under a plea agreement, was given six months to come up with $1 million for the victims in exchange for 3 to 9 years in prison.

The offer was rescinded, however, when he failed to come up with any restitution.

When given the chance Tuesday to address his crimes, Boldi wept and apologized to his victims.

"I am very sorry. There isn’t a day that goes by that I wish that this didn’t happen," he said. "Yes, my lawyer mentioned drugs and alcohol, but that’s no excuse. ... I messed up. I messed up bad. I don’t want forgiveness. I don’t deserve forgiveness."

Supreme Court Justice Caryn Fink sentenced Boldi to 4 to 12 years and ordered a civil judgment be filed against him for the $6.2 million.

"What is apparent to me is that in all these instances you have put yourself and your interest above the people that you were supposed to serve as a fiduciary," she said. "It sickens me how you have disgraced not only your family, but yourself and your profession."