Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein New York Post
September 11 lawyer Paul Napoli improperly used his law firm’s cash to pay for private plane trips and luxury hotel stays, and to make a $415,000 donation to charity, the receiver overseeing the crumbling Napoli Bern law firm has charged.
Napoli also used the firm’s money to pay the start-up costs of a competing law firm on Long Island, including $5,000 to a lawyer handling closing costs on a new building, Ira Warshawsky said in legal papers.
Warshawsky is seeking to cut off Napoli’s credit card, terminate his check-writing privileges and force him to give back the donation.
“This payment was a blatant violation of my standing directions forbidding any disbursements without my authorization,” Warshawsky said in court filings.
Warshawsky was named to oversee Napoli Bern’s finances last year during a nasty fight between the firm’s two founders, Napoli and Marc Bern.
The firm made tens of millions of dollars representing sick 9/11 responders but has been rocked by the infighting and a sex scandal involving a junior associate.
Paul Napoli denied he was using his firm’s resources to help start his wife’s firm.
