Former Oak Park attorney Richard Ruggiero was disbarred for misappropriating more than $291,000 in trust funds he managed for his aunt.
The aunt, who is deceased, had intended the funds to be given to her son and several charities.
Ruggiero, who became a licensed attorney in 1992, has denied any wrongdoing.
The complaint against him was filed in September 2021. According to the report from the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Lena De Benedetto, Ruggiero’s aunt, died Dec. 30, 2017, and he became the successor trustee of her trust. Ruggiero was supposed to sell her condominium and give the proceeds to her son. If her son died before the funds were exhausted, they were supposed to be divided between several charities, including The American Heart Association, the Lupus Foundation and others. Her son died on Aug. 24, 2018.
However, records showed that between April 2019 and December 2020, Ruggiero wrote 64 checks to himself from the account that held the money from the sale. The checks totaled more than $260,000, which he claimed were “trustee’s fees” on the checks. Between January 2021 and May 2021, he wrote eight additional checks totaling more than $31,000 from a new account that held funds from the trust.
“The allegations deemed admitted clearly and convincingly establish that Respondent [Ruggiero] acted purposefully and deceitfully,” the report said. “He was not a beneficiary of the Trust, and therefore was not permitted to take all of the Trust assets for himself.”
The charities De Benedetto intended to donate to pursued a lawsuit against Ruggiero to obtain the funds owed to them after he took no responsibility for his actions. Members of the charities testified how the money would have benefited the organizations. For example, a $75,000 donation to Shriners Hospitals for Children would pay for 420 therapy visits. The same amount given to the American Heart Association could have funded training more than 100 people to perform CPR. That amount could have allowed the Pacific Garden Mission to provide 38,265 meals to individuals in need.
Ruggiero failed to comply with the Hearing Board’s requests for cooperation since the complaint was first filed in September 2021. The report also said Ruggiero showed no remorse for his actions.
“Respondent’s [Ruggiero’s] behavior in this matter gives us little confidence in his ability to conduct himself with honesty and integrity in the future,” the report said.