Tuesday, March 19, 2019
YOUNGSTOWN
A former Sebring-area judge must pay almost $209,000 to the estate of the deceased client from whom she stole, a judge has ruled.
Visiting Probate Court Judge Thomas Swift ruled Monday that Diane Vettori-Caraballo “willfully concealed” from the Mahoning County Probate Court assets she embezzled from that client, Dolores Falgiani, and her brother Robert Sampson, after Falgiani’s death, according to court filings.
Vettori-Caraballo – who helped Falgiani prepare a will and provided estate-planning services for Sampson – was accused of stealing at least $100,200 that Falgiani had stored in shoeboxes at her Boardman home before her death in March 2016.
Vettori-Caraballo then structured 22 deposits of the stolen cash across five banks over the course of four weeks to skirt regulations requiring banks to report cash transactions of more than $10,000 to the IRS, said Deane Hassman, FBI special agent, who testified in the probate court when proceedings began in December.
He said Vettori-Caraballo used it to pay about $58,000 on 35 different credit cards.
Read more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.