ALBANY — Slingerlands estate lawyer Albert Hessberg III ripped off more than $2 million from unsuspecting clients and his firm, but he’s got a friend in brother-in-law James Taylor and many members of Albany's legal establishment.

Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners was also among those who praised Hessberg, a 64-year-old third-generation lawyer who for more than a decade “betrayed the dead and defrauded the dying,” according to federal prosecutors.

Taylor, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is married to the defendant’s sister, Kim Hessberg Taylor. The couple is paying $1.7 million of the restitution owed by Hessberg, who pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud, mail fraud and filing false tax returns.

On June 12, Taylor wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino asking for leniency for Hessberg, known as “Ab.”

“How did such a thoroughly decent man commit such a breach of trust? We all ask ourselves and each other but, in the end, we are baffled,” Taylor told the judge. “There is literally no one I know less likely than Ab to have done what he has done. This event has rocked our world.”

The musician said he believes Hessberg, whose crimes stretched from 2006 to 2018, is sincerely contrite. Taylor said he supports his wife in repaying the lawyer's surviving victims.

The couple is not alone: More than 100 letters on Hessberg's behalf were sent to his attorney, E. Stewart Jones, and to the judge. Hessberg is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 1.

Conners, the county's top fiscal officer, noted that he has known Hessberg more than 40 years. "His actions that resulted in this legal matter are so out of character that I believe this has to be an isolated and tragic mistake that will never occur," Conners wrote. "Please do not imprison Mr. Hessberg, there is a better alternative."

Hessberg's grandfather was a prominent Albany lawyer and treasurer of the state Bar Association. His father was president of the Albany County Bar Association and chairman of Albany Medical Center Hospital.

Letters seeking leniency were submitted by Hessberg's wife and other family members, as well as more than two dozen prominent Capital Region lawyers and business executives — many of the letters written before he accepted a guilty plea. They include:

Albany Medical Center President and CEO James J. Barba, who wrote that "If (Hessberg's misdeeds) happened as the media has reported, it is a mistake that is not in keeping with his character" and that "if I had a son I would want him to be exactly like Ab Hessberg.” Barba also offered to arrange for Hessberg to perform community service at Albany Med.

Prime Companies executives Kenneth M. Raymond, who wrote of observing Hessberg during a recent Thanksgiving shared by the two families. "I said to my wife what a great father and husband Ab is and what a considerate friend he had been to me," he wrote.

William B. Picotte of the Picotte Companies real estate firm, who called Hessberg "a person of high integrity and character."

Blaine Ryan-Lynch, the wife of state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch, who wrote, "We have enjoyed so many great times together, we consider Ab and his family, our family. Ab is always welcome in our home."

Bartley Costello, a vice president, principal and shareholder of Hinman Straub, who said Hessberg “chose to accept the responsibility that goes with his upbringing, profession and family values.”

Former Albany County Bar Association President Matthew Kelly, who called Hessberg "an honorable man.”

Attorney Kevin Maney, who wrote, “I feel that he should not be sentenced to prison for this isolated lapse and that he has much to offer to society."

Peter F. Stuto, the general counsel for the Albany County Airport Authority, who said that he thought Hessberg's "behavior is aberrational and that his regret is great and he has already suffered a great deal."

James E. Girvin of the firm of Girvin & Ferlazzo said, “I know that the charges Ab is facing have greatly impacted him and his family.”

And Richard P. Walsh of the firm of Lombardi, Walsh, Davenport & Amodeo wrote, “Nothing pains me more than to think of the very public humiliation he and his family must be going through.”

Read the full submission of letters:

Hessberg’s victims will be paid the face value of their loss “almost exclusively to the generosity” of the Taylors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett told the judge in a pre-sentencing memo.

“The Taylors’ decision to pay $1.7 million toward the defendant’s restitution obligation shifts much of the financial loss to them,” Barnett told the judge. “This is particularly unfortunate given their philanthropic and charitable contributions. One can infer that as a result of the defendant’s fraud, the Taylors will have less money to bestow on charitable and philanthropic causes.”

Barnett recommended that Hessberg should be sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison. Hessberg was fired in March 2018 from Barclay Damon, the firm where he had worked at since 1981 handling trust and estate cases.

Hessberg stole as much as $616,707 from one victim, while his smallest theft was $3,517, the prosecutor noted.

“The defendant’s scheme spanned more than a decade and included hundreds if not thousands of separate criminal acts. Greed was his only motivation, as he stole solely to fund a lifestyle he could not have otherwise afforded and did not want to work for," Barnett told the judge.

Barnett said Hessberg violated wills, trusts and stole from “ordinary people with modest inheritances.”

Court papers show one of Hessberg's former clients died in 2007, leaving a probate estate of $555,000. Hessberg was executor of the estate, the assets of which were supposed to be left in a trust for the man's widow and trusts for their three children and grandchildren.



When the man's widow died in 2010, leaving an estate of $314,000, Hessberg had never set up trusts for the children or grandchildren. When one of the children turned 65 in 2017 and asked Hessberg about the inheritance, Hessberg responded that distributing the assets was complicated and he needed more time. Hessberg used the money for his own personal use, court papers show.

“He lied to, deceived and manipulated clients who had placed their trust in him, including a woman dying of cancer,” Barnett stated. “He exploited relationships that went back decades, to his father’s time serving earlier generations of the same Albany families. He repeatedly lied to the courts of the state of New York. He defrauded the law firm that employed him for his entire career. He betrayed his profession, making a mockery of the positions he held — trustee, fiduciary, guardian. And he never expressed remorse directly to his victims, and always gave them the back of his hand.”

He noted that Hessberg’s victims will not receive lost interest and investment income, nor attorney and account fees incurred as Hessberg’s fraud was investigated.

Barnett included letters from victims in his memo.

"His plan to confuse and obfuscate the situation made us each feel at times humiliated, angry, embarrassed, incompetent, and misaligned," one victim stated. "In hindsight we now see that he created a barrier of lies to shield his misdeeds by portraying himself as a reliable authority figure and casting us as ‘greedy grandchildren.’"

Another said, "The feelings of utter betrayal, disillusionment and anger have had a significant impact on me. I write this in tears as I consider the impact to my emotional and financial well-being. It’s heartbreaking to consider what my grandmother wanted for us and entrusted Mr. Hessberg to fulfill. This was not a one-time event or one-time poor decision, this was years of premeditated conscious decisions to steal and to lie to fund his lifestyle rather than live within it."