Attorney allegedly stole from elderly man’s estate

A former Flushing attorney has been charged with misappropriating more than $400,000 from the estate of an elderly Queens man for whom he had been named as trustee.
“The defendant is accused of breaching his fiduciary obligations by siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars in trust funds for his own personal use and leaving the trust with a closing balance of less than one hundred dollars,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Stephen E. Pearlman, 55, of 2 Millet Street in Dix Hills, Long Island.
Pearlman, who - prior to his disbarment on an unrelated matter in December 2006 - maintained a law practice at 158-14 Northern Boulevard, was arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Joseph Zayas on a charge of second-degree grand larceny, a Class C felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison.
Pearlman, who was released on his own recognizance, is scheduled to return to court on June 10.
According to the criminal charges, Pearlman was named the trustee for the estate of James Graham for the purpose of dispersing the trust’s assets to the deceased’s wife and beneficiary, Everilda Graham. Instead, it is alleged that between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2005, Pearlman made numerous unauthorized withdrawals and wire transfers from the trust, in which he transferred more than $400,000 to either his own general business account or the escrow accounts of other clients, thus leaving the Graham trust with a closing balance of $73.93.