Ma blames lawyer in li’l Thomas’ slay
‘Shark’ gets scammed for $388G
A devastated Long Island mother charged a courtappointed lawyer totally failed to protect her 8-yearold autistic son from a brutal death in a frozen garage.
The irate Justyna ZubkoValva verbally slammed lawyer Donna McCabe after a Nassau County Court hearing where the attorney walked away Thursday from her role in the bitter divorce case linked to the death of little Thomas Valva.
McCabe, assigned to advocate for Thomas and his two brothers in the marital case, insisted to the court over the course of several years that all Zubko-Valva’s three sons were enjoying a good home life with their father Michael Valva. The dad was subsequently charged, along with his fiancée Angela Pollina, in the Jan. 17 murder of Thomas, who was beaten and left to die in a freezing garage at the family’s Center Moriches home.
“Obviously, [McCabe] knows that the public are seeing her criminal actions, seeing what she’s done,” said Zubko-Valva outside court. “Her criminal actions caused the death of my son Tommy. And unfortunately she’s gonna have to respond in front of God for what she’s done.”
McCabe reported to the court that Thomas, along with 10-year-old Anthony and 6-year-old Andrew, were treated well while living with their father — even vouching for Valva, an NYPD officer, to retain custody of the boys. The children were removed from their mother in September 2017 after Valva leveled unsubstantiated abuse allegations against his estranged wife.
All the while, the boys’ mother and school officials were sounding alarms about their condition. The boys,
Scammers went phishing and landed a shark.
Barbara Corcoran, the businesswoman and “Shark Tank” investor, revealed she’s the victim of a phishing scam that cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The real estate brokerage firm founder turned TV star told People she’s down $388,700 after her bookkeeper received a seemingly innocuous email about a real estate deal.
“It was an invoice supposedly sent by my assistant to my bookkeeper approving the payment for a real estate renovation,” Corcoran (inset) told the magazine. “There was no reason to be suspicious as I invest in a lot of real estate.”
The bookkeeper wired the money to the phisher on Tuesday, not realizing she hadn’t actually been interacting with Corcoran’s assistant until it was too late.
“The detail that no one caught was that my assistant’s email address was misspelled by one letter, making it the fake email address set up by the scammers,” Corcoran, 70, told People.
They only realized a mistake had been made, Corcoran said, once the bookkeeper looped in the assistant in another message.
Corcoran said she doesn’t expect to get the money back.
Corcoran sold her realestate firm, The Corcoran Group, for $66 million in 2001. She has starred as one of the sharks on ABC’s “Shark Tank” since the investment reality series’ debut season in 2009.
She also appeared as a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2017. She and partner Keo Motsepe were the first team eliminated that season.
She seemed to shrug off being the victim of a scam, telling People, “I was upset at first, but then remembered it was only money.”