Long time Falls lawyer gets jail term for stealing from clients
LOCKPORT — A once prominent Falls attorney left the Niagara County courthouse in Lockport in handcuffs on Wednesday.
New York State Court officers put the cuffs on Robert Koryl after Erie County Court Judge Suzanne Maxwell Barnes, sitting in as an acting Niagara County Court judge, sentenced him to a 6-month jail term, followed by 5 years of probation, for his conviction on charges accusing him of stealing cash from his clients.
He could have faced a possible prison term of up to seven years.
Koryl is also required to repay $169,063 in restitution to his affected clients and he will be stripped of his license to practice law.
He had been serving a term of interim probation, in an effort to give him time to pay back the clients he stole from. But prosecutors said he has so far paid back little, if any, of the stolen money.
Koryl, 69, of Youngstown, pleaded guilty in August to two counts of third-degree grand larceny and two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny in connection to the alleged theft of client funds as part of a plea deal with Niagara County prosecutors. He admitted to stealing cash from his clients that was supposed to be held in his attorney trust fund.
A Niagara County grand jury originally returned a six-count indictment that charged Koryl with one count of first-degree scheme to defraud, two counts of second-degree grand larceny, two counts of third-degree grand larceny and one count of fourth-degree grand larceny. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Koryl had been free on his own recognizance prior to his sentencing.
Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman said the case represented a violation of the public's trust.
'When people go to a lawyer's office to deal with complicated financial matters, they put themselves in the trust of that person,' Seaman said. 'An embezzlement by a lawyer is not just a theft, it is also a violation of a fiduciary duty that does harm to the (legal) profession as a whole.'
Koryl practiced out of a Pine Avenue law office and his Martindale-Hubell and Lawyers.com profiles show that his work was largely involved with personal injury cases.
He was arrested in late June 2023 and originally charged in Falls City Court with one count of second-degree grand larceny and one count of third-degree grand larceny.
Prosecutors charged that Koryl 'stole money belonging to his clients that he was supposed to be holding in his attorney trust account between 2016 and 2023.' Investigators from the district attorney's office said they began looking into Koryl after receiving a complaint about his handling of clients' funds.
Seaman has confirmed that Koryl was accused of defrauding five individual clients.
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