LONG ISLAND — A Long Island attorney who turned a vulnerable client’s home-sale proceeds into his personal funding source has been disbarred by the Appellate Division, Second Department.

In an opinion issued Wednesday, the court removed Julio Ceasar Galarza from the bar after finding that his handling of a client amounted to a “course of self-dealing” and said that he “actively took financial advantage of a vulnerable individual.”

Galarza named himself heir to his client’s money, paid off his Lowe’s and Home Depot credit cards from her trust, and billed hundreds of dollars an hour to pick up her mail and supervise a move between storage units.

In early 2019, the client, who is identified in court documents as JH, came to Galarza for help defending a specific performance action over the

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