A Great Neck-based attorney has been disbarred and faces grand larceny charges after he allegedly withheld more than $133,000 in down payments from real estate transactions he was involved with in the Bronx, Queens and Suffolk County in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that Marco Materassi, 59, of Dania Beach, Florida, was arraigned Thursday before Judge Sean Wright on four counts of third-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud, after an investigation found he unlawfully deposited $133,950 of funds in his \u201ctrust account\u201d for unrelated purchases at restaurants and\u00a0gas stations,\u00a0other miscellaneous purchases, and transfers into other accounts.<\/p>\n
Materassi pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance, Donnelly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions that people make, and clients deserve to work with reliable attorneys who can handle their money with honesty and professionalism,\u201d Donnelly said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Materassi, of Materassi Legal P.C., at 55 Northern Blvd., was the only authorized signatory of the office\u2019s bank account, Donnelly said.<\/p>\n
According to an investigation, on Nov. 15, 2023, a complainant hired Materassi to represent her in the sale of her Bronx home and gave him $25,000 for the down payment and another $6,200 at closing \u2014\u00a0$5,000 of which was to be held in escrow.<\/p>\n
However, when the complainant vacated the premises, Materassi failed to provide the $30,000 held in the escrow account.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, another complainant hired Materassi to represent her in the sale of her Bronx home and wired a down payment of $25,000 to Materassi\u2019s law office bank account.<\/p>\n
Before her closing, Materassi allegedly informed the complainant that another law firm would be representing her because his firm was going to be \u201cassumed by another firm or cease to exist.\u201d He did not appear at her April 2024 closing and did not provide the buyer\u2019s down payment.<\/p>\n
In March 2024, a complainant said he hired Materassi to represent him in the sale of his Forest Hills, Queens, home and a buyer wired the law office a down payment of $47,800.<\/p>\n
Materassi did not appear at the scheduled closing on Aug. 7, 2025,\u00a0but called in and participated on speakerphone. He did not provide the $47,500 check at closing, nor did he respond to the buyer\u00a0or the buyer\u2019s attorney\u2019s attempts of communication afterward.<\/p>\n
Lastly, on Jan. 4, 2024, a buyer sent Materassi $31,150 to purchase a home in Ronkonkoma. Materassi did not respond to the buyer or the buyer\u2019s attorney\u2019s attempts at communications and never returned the money, the statement said.<\/p>\n
The investigation found that between December 2023 and December 2024, Materassi allegedly used the funds in his \u201ctrust account\u201d for purposes unrelated to the retention of client escrow funds.<\/p>\n
As of Dec. 10, 2024, Materassi\u2018s law office bank account was closed by the bank and had a negative $15 balance, records showed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaterassi thought he could disappear with his clients\u2019 cash, but my office will make sure that he answers for his alleged crimes,\u201d Donnelly said.<\/p>\n
On June 18, the Appellate Division 2nd Department issued an order to disbar Materassi.<\/p>\n
Materassi surrendered on Thursday to district attorney detective Investigators.<\/p>\n
He is due back in court on Feb. 19. If convicted, he faces up\u00a0to 7 years in prison, Donnelly said.<\/p>\n
If you believe you have been a victim of Materassi’s, the\u00a0District Attorney\u2019s Office suggests calling its Criminal Complaint Unit\u00a0at 516-571-3505.<\/p>\n
Maureen Mullarkey is a breaking news reporter at Newsday. She previously worked as a reporter for Patch, where she covered a range of Long Island stories on topics such as the Diocese of Rockville Centre bankruptcy and the Babylon School District abuse scandals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Great Neck-based attorney has been disbarred and faces grand larceny charges after he allegedly withheld more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[5368,8015,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-109916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-local-crime","9":"tag-nassau","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}