Feds say an ex-lawyer from Camden County stole $2.4M in a fraud scheme tied to Philly sports season-ticket holders
Frank Tobolsky, 59, allegedly defrauded a Delaware resident from November 2013 through May 2016. Tobolsky had once before been accused of fraudulently selling a stadium seat license for the Eagles.
A former lawyer from Camden County tricked a Delaware man into giving him $2.4 million to invest in a business offering loans to season-ticket holders of one of Philadelphia’s sports teams, then spent the money gambling at casinos and on personal expenses, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Frank Tobolsky, 59, of Merchantville, who was previously disbarred as an attorney in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was arrested Tuesday and is charged with eight counts of wire fraud. He is accused of defrauding the unidentified Delaware resident from November 2013 through May 2016.
The indictment did not name the Philadelphia sports team Tobolsky cited in the scheme. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said federal prosecutors would not name the team because the team was not charged with anything and was a victim itself.
Tobolsky had previously been accused in a scheme that had some of the same hallmarks. In 2018, Tobolsky was separately charged by state authorities in Atlantic County on theft offenses in an alleged scheme worth $9,400 in which authorities said he fraudulently sold a Philadelphia Eagles Stadium Builder License (SBL) to a victim and then deposited the money into his account at the Golden Nugget casino. According to Atlantic County court records, Tobolsky entered a pretrial diversionary program.
During a virtual appearance Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Williams in Camden, Tobolsky requested a court-appointed attorney, indicating he doesn’t have the funds for a private lawyer.
Lisa Evans Lewis, an assistant federal public defender who was appointed to represent him, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
The judge noted that the government was not seeking Tobolsky’s detention and released him on a $250,000 unsecured bond.
She also ordered that he be prohibited from entering any gambling establishment and from engaging in any gambling activities, and said he must place himself on New Jersey’s casino gambling self-exclusion list, among other conditions.
Tobolsky had been admitted to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bars in 1987, where he had offices in Merchantville and Philadelphia. In New Jersey, Tobolsky admitted to knowingly misappropriating $32,500 in escrow funds, according to a 2018 state Supreme Court order on his disbarment. After being disbarred in New Jersey, he was also disbarred in Pennsylvania that same year.
Tobolsky said in text messages that he was not allowed to discuss his case or answer any questions without his attorney’s permission. His attorney did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday.