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Cooperstown Man Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering
ALBANY, NEW YORK – Thomas K. Lagan, age 60, of Cooperstown, New York, and formerly of Slingerlands, New York, pled guilty today to money laundering and filing a false tax return in connection with the theft of approximately $11.8 million from estates for which he served as a fiduciary.
Lagan admitted that between November 2011 and February 2018, he conspired with Richard J. Sherwood to launder the proceeds of a scheme to defraud the estates of three sisters: Pauline Bruggeman, Anne Urban, and Julia Rentz.
The scheme, which started in 2006, involved providing estate planning and related legal services to Capital Region philanthropists Warren and Pauline Bruggeman, and to Pauline’s sister, Anne Urban, all of Niskayuna, New York. They were advising the Bruggemans when, in 2006, the Bruggemans signed wills directing that all their assets go to charities, churches and civic organizations, aside from bequests to Anne Urban and Julia Rentz, Pauline’s other sister.
In pleading guilty, Lagan admitted that after Pauline Bruggeman’s death, he and Sherwood conspired to steal, and did steal, millions of dollars from her estate as well as from Anne Urban, who died in 2013.
Lagan admitted that he and Sherwood stole $11,831,563, and that nearly $6.3 million was transferred outright to him, with an additional $1.96 million transferred to an entity, Empire Capital Trust, LLC, that he and Sherwood controlled.
United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith stated: “Thomas Lagan’s fraud was staggering, both in terms of the amount stolen and in his misuse of his professional standing and betrayal of longtime clients who trusted him to direct their money to family members, churches, charities, and other organizations after they died. Instead, Lagan and Richard Sherwood lined their own pockets and then lied about it on their tax returns. Now they will be held accountable for their contemptible crimes.”
Lagan was an investment advisor and attorney. Sherwood, an attorney who served as Guilderland Town Justice, practiced primarily in the area of trusts and estates. Lagan’s co-conspirator, Sherwood, pled guilty in June 2018 to federal and state charges.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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