New charges for ex-attorney

A disbarred Old Westbury attorney allegedly used forged documents to steal $1.6 million from a client in three phony real-estate transactions, Nassau County investigators said Thursday.

James Kalpakis, 50, was arrested and charged with grand larceny and three counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, according to a news release from the office of Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Kalpakis faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, the release said. He was scheduled for arraignment Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.

The release said that "between February and December 2009, Kalpakis approached a real estate investor who was a client of his with three property deals which he said would be good opportunities. Kalpakis then acted as the attorney on the deals."

The client was unaware that Kalpakis had been "suspended from practicing law in 2005, after being charged with 14 counts of professional misconduct, and disbarred in September 2009," the release said.

The client gave Kalpakis $825,000 to buy residential property on Ridge Drive in Old Westbury and received a deed transferring ownership to him from Wells Fargo Bank, according to the release.

The investor also paid Kalpakis $289,000 to hold in escrow for the purchase of a residential property on Cadillac Drive in East Meadow. In that transaction, the client received a letter from a different attorney acknowledging receipt of the funds.

The investor then gave Kalpakis $500,000 to buy a business property on Glen Cove Road in Old Westbury. Kalpakis provided his client a deed transferring ownership from JP Morgan Chase bank, the release said.

But investigators said that "both deeds given to the investor by Kalpakis were forgeries, and the letter from the attorney acknowledging receipt of the funds for the East Meadow property was not only a forgery, but came from an attorney and an address that did not exist."

The Old Westbury residence was the home of Kalpakis' wife, the release said. Overall, Kalpakis stole $1.639 million from the client, the statement said.

"Given this defendant's history of deceiving clients and abusing their trust, it was only a matter of time before he found himself in handcuffs," Rice said in a statement.

Chief Robert Emmons of the Government & Consumer Frauds Bureau is prosecuting the case.

A phone call to Kalpakis' Mineola attorney, Robert Vella, was not immediately returned.