Photo, BCPO Michael Rumore, 51, of Lyndhurst

The Leader Staff Report

LYNDHURST (Nov. 6, 2009, 2:15 p.m.) — The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office announced today, Nov. 6, the arrest of a Lyndhurst lawyer for allegedly mishandling a real estate closing and lying on a statement to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In June 2007, Michael P. Rumore, now 51, of Travers Place in Lyndhurst, allegedly presented an altered HUD-1 statement to his client who was trying to sell a piece of real estate. In the statement, Rumore reportedly altered the selling price of the home to reflect an amount that was much greater than the contracted price. The lawyer also apparently listed several contractors who allegedly had done work for the seller and were owed money, police said.

Rumore then presented a much different HUD-1 statement to the mortgage company, which indicated a higher amount due to the seller and did not list the previous contractors, according to investigators with the county's White Collar Crime Unit. Rumore reportedly took the additional proceeds from the transaction and used the funds, which were in excess of $75,000, for his personal use.

Rumore was charged with theft by deception (second degree) and theft by failing to make proper disposition of property acquired (second degree). No bail details were released.

Previous case

This was not the first time Rumore was arrested.

In June of this year, State Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that Rumore was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for allegedly stealing $4 million entrusted to him for real estate closings.

Rumore was ordered to pay more than $6.2 million in restitution by Superior Court Judge Harry G. Carroll. Rumore allegedly ran his practice from the basement of his Travers Place home in Lyndhurst, and he reportedly used the stolen money to gamble on slot machines in Atlantic City.

The lawyer gambled at several different casinos, but Trump's Taj Mahal, Caesar's, Bally's and Harrah's were favorite establishments, Peter Aseltine, Milgram's spokesperson, told The Leader previously.

"Rather than upholding the law and the interests of his clients, as he was sworn to do as an attorney, this defendant stole $4 million," Milgram stated. "We will continue to aggressively prosecute white-collar crime."

Rumore allegedly stole the millions between April 2007 and August 2008. The money came from several mortgage companies that had entrusted their funds with the lawyer, the attorney general added. Among Rumore's victims were First American Title Insurance Company and New Jersey Title Insurance Company.

Rumore pleaded guilty Jan. 2 to first-degree money laundering and second-degree theft by failure to make required disposition of property received. The lawyer surrendered his license to practice law and was disbarred by the Office of Attorney Ethics in September 2008.

Earlier this year, Rumore's lawyer Albert Alfano said his client was unable to make full restitution. "He's going to try and pay back as much as he could," he said. "There's no way he's going to come close to that."

Rumore could have received 30 years in prison, but state officials previously announced that they were only looking to send the lawyer to prison for 15 years. Alfano was hoping for less than that, saying that his client is "troubled" and suffers from bipolar disorder, depression, diabetes and a back problem. His argument appears to have proved unsuccessful.

Alfano said the motive of Rumore's actions was plain a simple: he had a serious gambling problem. "Not a dime of it went anywhere else," Alfano said earlier this year. "He always intended to pay it back."

Rumore had once served as a fire chief in Lyndhurst, though he was not associated with the fire department at the time of the alleged crimes.

It is still unclear whether Rumore is currently serving in state prison.