Diane Vettori-Caraballo faces 30 months

By JUSTIN DENNIS

jdennis@vindy.com

CLEVELAND

A former Sebring judge who pleaded guilty to stealing from the estate of a deceased client faces 30 months in prison.

U.S. Northern District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster Thursday morning sentenced Diane Vettori-Caraballo to 30 months each on her counts of mail fraud, structuring bank deposits and making false statements to law enforcement, according to court filings. Those sentences are to be served concurrently.

Vettori-Caraballo will also be subject to three years of supervision upon release and is ordered to pay $328,000 in restitution, an amount on which prosecutors and defense attorneys stipulated Thursday, court officials said.

She is ordered to surrender to U.S. Marshals no later than noon Sept. 6.

Vettori-Caraballo’s husband, Ismael Caraballo, was also sentenced Thursday to three years of probation on a count of failing to pay taxes. Prosecutors dismissed counts of making a false tax returns against both as part of plea agreements, court records show.

Ismael Caraballo has already fully paid an ordered restitution of $22,126, according to records.

Federal prosecutors accused Vettori-Caraballo in November of stealing between $100,200 and $328,000 from the estate of her former client, Dolores Falgiani, for whom Vettori-Caraballo helped prepare a will.

Much of that money was cash Vettori-Caraballo found hidden at Falgiani’s home after Falgiani’s death in March 2016, prosecutors said.

Federal agents found Vettori-Caraballo structured deposits of the stolen cash between accounts at several different banks, in order to skirt regulations requiring banks to report large cash transactions to the IRS.

She used the stolen money to pay $58,000 in debt on more than 30 credit cards, according to FBI special agent Deane Hassman, who testified in a separate probate case on Vettori-Caraballo’s concealment of the stolen assets from the court.

A judge ruled in March Vettori-Caraballo must repay nearly $209,000 to the estate, $100,200 of which was money she “willfully concealed.”

Vettori-Caraballo was elected judge of the Mahoning County Area Court in Sebring in 2002 and re-elected twice. She was suspended from the seat in January 2018, after criminal charges were filed.

Vettori-Caraballo pleaded guilty in February. She had previously accepted, then rejected plea deals.

“The fact that the defendant stole at least $100,000 from an elderly person who trusted her to administer their estate is heartbreaking,” U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said Thursday. “The fact that the thief in this case was a sitting judge who swore to uphold the law is outrageous.”