U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino on Monday sentenced a former criminal defense lawyer to one year and one day in prison and sentenced a former employee of the Southern District of New York Magistrate Clerk’s Office to two years in prison for the duo’s involvement in a kickback scheme in the SDNY.
Prosecutors said the clerk’s office employee, Dionisio Figueroa, used his involvement with the intake of new criminal cases to encourage defendants to hire the disbarred attorney, Telesforo “Ted” Del Valle Jr., even when the defendants had access to court-appointed counsel at no cost. Del Valle then paid tens of thousands of dollars in referral fees to Figueroa between 2011 and 2022, prosecutors said.
