Frank N. Tobolsky, 60, of Cherry Hill told the Delaware investor that he was funding loans for clients using season ticket licenses as collateral, an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Camden says.
U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said Tobolsky put a "substantial portion" of the $2.4 million toward personal expenses, some of which the indictment says was used at Atlantic City casinos.
The victim, meanwhile, got a purported return on his investment from what was left.
Rather than risk the consequences of a trial, Tobolsky took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to wire fraud in exchange for sentencing leniency.
Tobolsky will have to serve just about all of the 48-month sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
The scheme began in November 2013 while Tobolsky still had a license to practice law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the federal indictment says.
Tobolsky was disbarred in 2018 for misappropriating in escrow funds following an arrest by New Jersey State Police earlier that year.
In that case, the NJSP Casino Gaming Bureau’s Financial Crimes Squad found that Tobolsky got a victim to respond to an online ad for the sale of an Eagles season ticket license on behalf of clients who he said were getting divorced.
Tobolsky collected $9,400 in cashier’s checks from the victim that he deposited into an account at the Golden Nugget Casino, said State Police, who arrested him at Resorts and charged him with theft.
In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman sentenced Tobolsky to Ithree years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $1.98 million in restitution.
Sellinger credited inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Philadelphia Division with making the recent case. He also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware for assisting.
Securing the guilty plea and sentencing for the government were Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crockett of Sellinger’s office in Camden.
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