Shocking allegations have been made against a prominent attorney in Luzerne County.
Attorney Anthony Lupas is the father of county judge David Lupas.
Now former clients of Anthony Lupas say he bilked people out of thousands of dollars he was supposed to invest.
Paperwork filed at the Luzerne County Courthouse seeks information from well-known Luzerne County Attorney Anthony Lupas.
Scranton attorney Ernie Preate filed the documents on behalf of three families he said Lupas bilked out of their savings.
Preate said the families contacted him after they could not find Lupas.
“They went to his office and they were told, office is closed, there’s no more monies available,” said Preate. “They said well we gave him all kinds of tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of it and nobody knew.”
Preate said his clients gave Lupas thousands of dollars over the years for him to invest.
Preate, a former state attorney general who himself served federal time for fraud, said the families want to know what happened with the money.
“Subpoena Mr. Lupas, put him under oath, on a deposition and ask him what happened to the money. Tell us so we can file an appropriate complaint against him,” said Preate.
Preate said his clients have filed complaints with the authorities.
Lupas' son, Luzerne County Judge David Lupas confirms his father is under investigation but does not say why.
In a statement Judge Lupas would only say that after his father was injured last November, “I came to learn of circumstances involving him which I believed warranted an investigation. Accordingly, I reported this matter to the proper authorities and requested an investigation.”
Anthony Lupas also served as the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board solicitor for decades.
Superintendent Jeffrey Namey said Lupas resigned February 22 due to that November injury.
Namey said Lupas also told him that because of his injury he could no longer practice as an attorney and that he would be closing his Wilkes-Barre office.
As for the allegations, Namey said, he and the board are shocked.
“We've known Tony for many, many years,” said Namey. “He's done a great job for us here in the district and I guess we simply have to just wait and see what the reality is, what the truth is.”
