Cobb lawyer gets prison for fraud

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A former Marietta lawyer was sentenced to federal prison Monday for stealing more than $340,000 from his firm through a bank fraud scheme.

Steven Zagoria, 59, was sentenced to one year and nine months in jail for bilking his law firm of $343,639 and using the money to pay his mortgage, credit card bills and child’s college tuition, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob on Monday also ordered Zagoria to pay $318,000 in restitution as well as $4,000 in a special assessment.

Zagoria was found guilty of forging the signature of one of the law firm’s principals on checks that were actually for attorney’s fees – and then depositing that money into his own personal bank account, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Zagoria also gave some of the money to his wife so she could buy a second home, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

“An attorney has an obligation to put his clients’ best interests before his own. Instead, this defendant betrayed this trust by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from not only his clients but his partners,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said.