A state Supreme Court judge was scammed out of more than $1 million after being fooled by an email she thought had been sent by her real estate lawyer, the Daily News has learned.
Acting State Supreme Court Justice Lori Sattler, 51, was duped while trying to sell her apartment and buy another, sources said.
On Friday, Sattler told police she’d gotten an email June 7 from someone she believed was her lawyer, sources said.
The person claiming to be the lawyer told her to send money to an account. She followed the instructions and wired $1,057,500 to that account, sources said. The money was then sent to Commerce Bank of China, sources said.
A doorman at her Upper East Side building said the judge, who is assigned to the Manhattan criminal courts, wasn’t taking visitors.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the Office of Court Administration, declined comment based on the pending investigation.
“It is correct that the judge was the victim of a crime — and as it is a pending criminal matter we can’t comment any further,” Chalfen said.
In 2013, Sattler presided over the custody battle between Lisa Mehos and her ex-husband Manuel Mehos.
During the trial, she allowed evidence that Lisa Mehos had had an abortion. Manuel Mehos’ lawyer used the procedure in an attempt to paint the mom as a hypocrite for asking to have their kids over the 2012 Easter holiday.
“(At) the time that she told him that he couldn’t have the children for Easter because he was an atheist, she was having an abortion,” the lawyer argued. Sattler back then expressed her displeasure the case had become “newspaper fodder.”
