A now-disbarred local real-estate attorney who stole roughly $1.18 million from dozens of clients has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced on Tuesday.

During a hearing held on Friday, Jan. 17, before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Christie Bevacqua, 49-year-old Steven H. Salami, of Hazlet, was also ordered to pay the full amount of the stolen funds back to the New Jersey Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, which had previously reimbursed his clients.

The case background …

The initial investigation into Salami’s activities, conducted by the MCPO Financial Crimes and Special Prosecutions Unit, focused on four victims defrauded out of nearly $300,000 from April through August of 2019.

In his capacity as an attorney, the investigation showed, Salami accepted funds from each victim for various real-estate transactions, putting the money in escrow, but failed to do the work for which he was paid. These actions resulted in missed closing dates and nullified transactions for the victims, among other issues.

Following Salami’s October 2019 arrest, the investigation continued, uncovering dozens of additional victims and leading to a 63-count indictment being returned by a Monmouth County Grand Jury in July of 2021. The case was then put on hiatus until the Superior Court Appellate Division in November 2023 granted the state’s appeal to restore two counts of the indictment that had been previously dismissed by a lower court.

Salami then pleaded guilty to second-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity in October of 2024.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office

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