Ex-Lawyer Who Stole $1 Million From 9/11 Fund Pleads Guilty

A New York lawyer who was disbarred in 2016 pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $1 million from the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund.

Gustavo Vila “stole money awarded by the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to his client, an NYPD officer and 9/11 first responder, and falsely told the client for more than three years that the stolen money had yet to be released by the Fund,” Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement Thursday.

Vila represented John Ferreyra between 2012 and 2019, according to a Justice Department statement. Ferreyra was diagnosed with cancer from the work he ...