Attorney Daphna Zekaria, of Syosset, sentenced to 6 months for stealing $400,000 from clients
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney talks to reporters on April 8. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
A Long Island attorney who stole almost $400,000 from her clients has been sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to second-degree grand larceny and related charges, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
Authorities said Daphna Zekaria, 56, of Syosset, a partner in the Huntington law firm Sokolski and Zekaria, was hired to represent a client in a divorce and, later, the sale of a home, but took funds earmarked for an escrow account and instead used them to pay personal and business expenses.
The district attorney’s office said Zekaria also stole funds from a state lottery winner she represented and from an elderly Manhattan woman who she’d been hired to represent in eviction proceedings.
Zekaria pleaded guilty in May of last year before Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro to two counts of second-degree grand larceny and one count each of third-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and second-degree criminal contempt.
On Friday, she was sentenced to six months in jail with five years of probation. The district attorney’s office said Zekaria has paid $373,500 in restitution to The Lawyers Fund for Client Protection as part of her sentencing agreement.
She was represented by the Legal Aid Society.
“Attorneys are held to a higher ethical standard than the rest of society, and for good reason,” Suffolk District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement, adding: “This defendant didn’t just steal money; she abused her position of trust and the legal system itself.”
Authorities said that between December 2021 and March 2022, Zekaria received about $150,000, proceeds of the home sale on behalf of her client in the divorce case, money that was to be held in escrow and distributed when the divorce was finalized. Instead, authorities said, Zekaria used the funds for her own expenses.
Also in December 2021, the district attorney’s office said Zekaria was hired to represent a state lottery winner, and “made promises” to hold a portion of the client’s money in her firm’s escrow account, while investing a portion on the client’s behalf. Instead, the district attorney’s office said, Zekaria did neither, but transferred money to others, collecting a total of $230,000 from the victim in three transactions.
And in March 2023, Zekaria was retained to represent a Manhattan woman in contesting an eviction, taking $17,500 from the victim, but performed no legal work on her behalf, authorities said. By the time the victim requested a return of the funds 13 days after making the payment, Zekaria had already spent the money on her own utility and credit cards bills, the district attorney’s office said.
John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.
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