Mar 1, 2018 3 min read

A disbarred Charleroi attorney is seeking probation rather than a federal prison sentence for stealing more than $500,000 from a dementia patient and using the money for his personal and business interests.

An attorney representing Keith Bassi presented the court a motion Wednesday seeking leniency for his client, which included more than 60 letters of support from a wide range of people, from his piano teacher to a local school board president.

“We ask this court to view Mr. Bassi’s offense not in isolation but rather within the context of his life and career, weighing his service and charity, his otherwise reputable career as well as the critical role he holds in the lives of so many,” Bassi’s attorney, Stephen S. Stallings of Pittsburgh, stated in court records.

Bassi, 61, of Jefferson Township, Fayette County, stole money from a client identified in initial court records as N.J.L. beginning in 2013, and used some of it to open accounts for the Monessen-based Mon Valley Independent, of which he is a part owner.

U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab accepted guilty pleas from Bassi to three counts of felony mail fraud and set a sentencing hearing for March 14. Bassi, formerly of Bassi, Vreeland & Associates of Charleroi, also has made full restitution in the case.

Stallings noted in the court record Bassi “made a monumental lapse in judgment” by stealing the money, something that shattered his life.

“Overwhelmingly, those who wrote letters to this court explain that, even knowing Mr. Bassi’s criminal conduct, which was very uncharacteristic, they still trust him and believe in him,” Stallings wrote in the court record.

Prosecutors are recommending Bassi be sentenced to 31 to 41 months in prison, arguing he negotiated a plea agreement to avoid mandatory incarceration on a charge of aggravated identity theft, court records show.

The victim retained Bassi as power of attorney in 2006 when she was 75 years old. She has no next of kin and is now in a dementia unit at a care center in Pittsburgh, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory C. Melucci noted in his reply to Bassi’s motion. At the end of 2012, her estate was estimated at $2 million.

Melucci noted “it was no coincidence that the embezzlement began around the time that (the victim) began to suffer cognitive complications.”

He stated Bassi acted out of “capacious greed to support a very comfortable lifestyle.”

He also stated in court documents Bassi’s crimes “cannot be excused as a aberration, or short period of indiscretion.”

Federal investigators also found evidence of other misappropriations of funds belonging to the victim who was identified in the new court records as Nancy J. Lutz.

Between June 2013 and December 2015, investigators identified approximately $18,804 in cashed checks from funds belonging to the Lutz estate. Between November 2011 and September 2016, approximately $54,974 was deposited by Mr. Bassi into a law firm partnership account, and used to pay the law firm’s mortgage and Bassi’s personal mortgage on his home, court records state.

Bassi also used about $37,000 of the woman’s money in May 2016 to pay for the closing costs on a house in Chicago, the record states.