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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Attorney Gets Six Months for Wire Fraud Conspiracy

HARTFORD (CN) - An attorney who was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay $828,000 in restitution for mail and wire fraud conspiracy has been asked to appear before the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel.

The Chief Disciplinary filed the Presentment of Attorney for Conviction of Crime against Lucy DeMelo, who was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1996 and, according to the presentment, was sentenced to six months and a day in jail on April 4.

"(A)s a result of her conviction of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, [DeMelo] received a total effective sentence of 6 months and 1 day jail, followed by 6 months home confinement and was ordered to pay $828,104 in restitution," according to the presentment in Superior Court.

DeMelo, 39, a real estate attorney in Danbury, received her federal sentence after admitting she falsified documents that allowed co-conspirators to qualify for loans and refinancing, according to a report in the Danbury News Times.

The News Times reported that the conspiracy cost lenders more than $1 million. DeMelo was the second person sentenced in the conspiracy, according to the News Times. Gary Snook, 62, an accountant, was sentenced in December 2011 to two years in prison and ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution by the same federal judge who sentenced DeMelo, the newspaper reported.

The alleged head of the conspiracy was identified in court documents only as Loan Originator No. 1, and neither the U.S. Attorney's Office nor DeMelo's attorney would reveal who that is, according to the News Times.

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