Former Eastchester Doc Gets a Year in Jail for Stealing $500K from Elderly Woman
Former physician Peter Corines, 71, of Eastchester, has been sentenced to a year in county jail for stealing more than $500,000 from a 97-year-old Yonkers woman through various fraudulent means, announced Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino Jr.
Specifically, Corines was sentenced one year for each of the following charges, to run concurrently: seventh degree grand larceny, second-degree attempted grand larceny, and first-degree identity theft, all felonies. Corines agreed to forfeit $11,600 of the victim’s money found in his residence from a search warrant.
Westchester County Court Judge Barry Warhit presided over the sentencing. From the bench, he told the defendant, a former medical doctor, he is “a disgrace to a noble profession.” During a two-week period in November 2017, Corines, after ingratiating himself, stole from an elderly woman by obtaining a power of attorney to benefit himself to reduce his mounting personal debt and infuse money into his failing yacht repair business in Florida. He did so by pretending to be her on the phone or online with numerous financial institutions where the victim had accounts.
More specifically, by claiming to be acting in her best interest, Corines went into various banks and withdrew money from her accounts; and by pretending to be her, he called various mutual funds and requested checks from her accounts. Corines also set up online accounts to receive money from various mutual funds owned by the victim, and then Corines requested checks from the mutual funds, without her permission, authority or consent. In total, Corines stole approximately $540,106 attempted to steal $262,171.
Corines was arrested by Yonkers Police on April 24, 2018, subsequent to the execution of a search warrant at his home in Eastchester. Assistant District Attorney Emily Rowe-Smith of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Investigations Division Economic Crimes Bureau prosecuted the case.
