Listen to this articleA former employee at a Nassau County-based law firm has been sentenced in a $500,000 grand larceny scheme in she had been charged with stealing from the firm’s special-needs clients, officials said Friday.
Michelle Byrd had pleaded guilty in April, after being charged with stealing more than half a million dollars from a law firm that was the trustee for seven trust bank accounts that benefitted people with special needs between 2014 and 2021.
She was sentenced to one year to three years in prison. She paid restitution to the law firm in the amount of $106,287. Judgment orders were issued for the benefit of the law firm in the amount of $395,266.41 and $25,000 for the law firm’s insurance company.
“Michelle Byrd had a duty as a case manager for seven trusts to protect the firm’s vulnerable clients and manage their finances appropriately and carefully to ensure that their needs were met,” Nassau County District Anne Donnelly said in a news release about the sentence.
“Instead, this defendant acted only in her own self-interest, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from elderly and special needs clients to finance her lifestyle,” Donnelly said. “Her despicable and unconscionable theft forced a wheelchair-bound stroke victim to sell his home because of the financial losses he suffered. Byrd violated her ethical obligations and the trust of the clients she was supposed to serve and will now forfeit her funds and freedom to pay for her crimes.”
Byrd had worked for a Nassau County-based law firm that manages trusts for special needs clients, officials said. An attorney at the firm served as a trustee on trust accounts that supported seven clients and was the authorized signatory permitted to make disbursements and manage the beneficiaries’ bank accounts and transactions. The defendant, a salaried employee, served as a case manager, and was in frequent contact with trust beneficiaries regarding their financial needs.
From April 2014 to April 2021, Byrd allegedly wrote hundreds of checks to herself from seven trust accounts, causing a total loss of approximately $526,553. Byrd allegedly forged the signature of the trustee on checks and forged bank statements to conceal the theft, according to officials.
But in April 2021, one of the trust accounts that Byrd helped manage was transferred to Chase bank, the bank emailed checks to the law firm’s controller for review. On April 7, 2021, the controller received an email of a check for review drawn on a trust, allegedly payable for $2,500 to Byrd, that was purportedly signed by the trustee, officials said. The trustee reviewed the transaction, and the check was cancelled. At that point, the law firm terminated the defendant’s employment, and, after a short internal review, referred the matter to the DA’s office in May 2021.