May 17, 2016

New Jersey announced that a lawyer who practiced in Jersey City has been indicted by a state grand jury on charges that he stole more than $1.5 million from five clients over a period of more than 10 years. From October 2004 through May 2015, Joseph J. Talafous Jr. allegedly stole approximately $1,528,022 from clients, and laundered most of the funds through his attorney trust account and/or attorney business account. Among other allegations, Talafous is accused of stealing approximately $402,418 from a trust set up for the benefit of a young boy in 2005 with funds from a wrongful death suit stemming from the death of his father. The father died in 2001 in a workplace accident when the child, a West New York resident, was still an infant. NJ