Nassau Attorney Admits To Stealing $5M In Fraudulent Real Estate Transactions: DA

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — An attorney from Garden City admitted to stealing more than $5 million in connection with 46 separate real estate transactions between September 2020 and January 2024, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced.

Daniel Boldi, 49, pleaded guilty Thursday to 13 counts of second-degree grand larceny and one count of first-degree scheme to defraud.

Boldi is expected to be sentenced to three to nine years in prison and is required to pay $1M in partial upfront restitution. He will no longer be licensed to practice law, the DA said. Boldi faces four to 12 years in prison if he fails to pay the full upfront restitution amount by the time of his sentence. He is due back in court for sentencing on April 17, 2025.

"Daniel Boldi posed as a trusted professional in real estate transactions and orchestrated elaborate schemes that defrauded nearly four dozen prospective homeowners, real estate brokers, and even a volunteer ambulance corps out of more than five million dollars," Donnelly said in a news release. "Daniel Boldi’s guilty plea is a step towards financially restoring the lives of the victims he devastated through his schemes. NCDA will continue to hold accountable those who abuse positions of trust for their own selfish gain and who undermine the trust of individuals and families wading into the real estate market."

Between Sept. 8, 2020, and Jan. 17, Boldi, an attorney experienced in real estate transactions who owned and operated his law firm, Boldi Law Group, P.C., embezzled $5,780,424 from 46 victims, ranging from individual homeowners, real estate agents, and other entities for whom he held money in escrow, Donnelly said.

Boldi committed escrow thefts that worth $4,630,424 from victims who worked with him on sales of their property or the purchasing of new property, the DA said.

In one scheme, on Oct. 31, 2023, a couple worked with Boldi on closing the sale of their East Meadow home, officials said. He acted as the settlement agent for the mortgage lender used in connection with the transaction, authorities said.

Boldi, after receiving the loan funds from the home buyer’s mortgage company, was to distribute $309,367 to the couple’s mortgage lender to pay off the remainder of the mortgage on the East Meadow home, prosecutors said.

Boldi lied to the couple that the wire transfer from the buyer’s lender were not posted to his escrow account, and the funds were not available at the time of the closing, investigators said. Based upon the Boldi's lie that the funds were not posted yet, the parties agreed to a "dry closing," and the deed to the home was held in escrow, officials said.

Days later, on Nov. 2, 2023, Boldi provided the couple with a fraudulent copy of what he claimed was a wire request for the mortgage payoff amount, as proof that the funds were sent to the couple’s mortgage company, investigators said. As a result, the deed was released, and the sale was completed, the DA said. However, the wire transfer was never sent to the couple’s mortgage company, authorities said.

The mortgage payoff funds were never provided to the lender, and the couple has been forced to continue making mortgage payments on a home they no longer own, Donnelly said.

In another scheme, Boldi also provided a private lender with a fraudulent mortgage and title closing records, embezzling $1.15 million through two separate loan thefts between Sept. 8, 2020, and Nov. 7, 2023, prosecutors said.

According to bank records, Boldi used the funds he stole on various personal expenses unrelated to the victims’ transactions, including Venmo payments to other people, as well as property investments, investigators said.

Boldi surrendered to NCDA detective investigators on April 10. He is represented by Michael R. Franzese.