R.I. Supreme Court Suspends Lawyer’s License

Feb. 25—PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The state Supreme Court has suspended estate planner Joseph A. Caramadre's license to practice law following his sentencing to six years in prison for his role in an investment scheme that exploited terminally ill people.

The suspension will remain in effect pending his appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of his conviction of conspiracy and wire fraud charges.

In addition, the court suspended lawyer Humberto M. Goncalves-Bappitt's law license after she acknowledged spending an elderly client's money for her own use.

Caramadre and his employee Raymour Radhakrishnan pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy four days into trial. Prosecutors portrayed Caramadre as the mastermind of an investments strategy in he and Radhakrishnan persuaded ill people, some on their deathbeds, into unwittingly signing documents. Those documents were then used to purchase investments on behalf of Caramadre's clients. Caramadre's investors profited upon the individual's death.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith in December sentenced Caramadre, a once philanthropist and political donor, to six years in prison. Radhakrishnan received a sentence of a year and a day.

Smith has ordered that Caramadre and Radhakrishnan pay $46-plus million to insurance companies and bond issuers defrauded under the scheme.

Caramadre is appealing his conviction to the 1st Circuit. Among the things he is challenging is Smith's denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty pleas.

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