A disbarred lawyer was sentenced to 51 months in prison for stealing $1 million in 9/11 compensation from a retired NYPD cop who contracted cancer from working at Ground Zero.
At his Monday sentencing in White Plains federal court on one count of theft of government funds, Gustavo Vila, 62, was also ordered to pay $867,870.76 in restitution to the victim.
Vila represented the unidentified retired police officer in his compensation claim case from 2012 through 2019 — even though his law license was revoked in 2015.
The client settled for $1,030,622 in 2016, but Vila didn’t turn over the money.
For three years, Vila told his client that the money had yet to be released by the fund, prosecutors said.
“Now Gustavo Vila has been sentenced to prison for his betrayal,” Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement announcing the sentencing.