An Ohio judges has resigned after she was charged in federal court of stealing from a former client.
Diane Vettori-Caraballo was charged with stealing at least USD96,200 from a now-deceased client. She faces charges of criminal information with one count of fraud, one count of structuring cash deposits and one count of making false statements to law enforcement, according to the US Department of Justice (US DOJ). The former judge resigned through a voicemail last week, according to the American Bar Association.
Vettori-Caraballo, 49, is said to have stolen between $96,200 and $328,000 in cash from the home of Dolores Falgiani, a former client. The former judge provided estate planning services, including drafting a will, to one Robert Sampson, who died in 2015. She filed to administer Sampson’s estate, saying that the man died without a will. The probate court appointed Falgiani, the man’s sister and closest living relative at the time of his death, as administrator of the man’s estate.
Falgiani stated sometime in late 2015 that she had several shoeboxes of cash at her residence. After she was found dead in her home on 10 March, 2016, the former judge filed to probate the woman’s estate. She then reported having found USD20,000 in cash, which she deposited into the estate, from Falgiani’s residence.
On several occasions in 2016 and 2017, Vettori-Caraballo filed notice of newly discovered assets with the probate court. “Each time, she failed to disclose the cash she had stolen, the US DOJ said.
The former judge is said to have structured 22 deposits of the cash she allegedly stole into five different bank accounts to avoid reporting the transactions. She also lied to the FBI when she was confronted by the agency about the alleged theft and deposits, the US DOJ said.
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