ALBANY — A town justice in the Capital Region and a financial adviser were arrested Friday for allegedly stealing more than $4 million from a trust both men were responsible for overseeing, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office announced.

Town of Guilderland Justice Richard Sherwood and Thomas Lagan, both lawyers, are accused by Schneiderman of “orchestrating a complex scheme to steal millions from a trust they were overseeing.”

The felony complaint charged Sherwood, who was a town attorney in Guilderland for 14 years before being elected to the court in 2013, with two counts of grand larceny, one count of scheme to defraud in the first degree and two counts of criminal possession of stolen property in the first degree.

Lagan was charged with two counts of grand larceny in the first degree, one count of scheme to defraud in the first degree, and two counts of criminal possession of stolen property in the first degree. Both men were arraigned Friday before Albany City Court Judge Gary Stiglmeier.

Sherwood is being represented in the matter by William Dreyer, a founding partner at Albany-based Dreyer Boyajian. Lagan is being represented by Cooperstown attorneys Ryan Miosek and Randel Scharf, according to Schneiderman's office. Calls to the defendants' lawyers for comment were not returned.

Sherwood had recently been listed as a partner at the Albany law firm Mazzotta & Vagianelis. But a woman who answered the phone at the law firm Thursday afternoon said Sherwood was no longer employed at the firm and declined to comment any further. Efforts to reach both Sherwood and Lagan on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Both Sherwood and Lagan had provided estate planning, legal and financial services to Warren and Pauline Bruggeman, two Capital Region philanthropists, as well as several family members, the felony complaint filed in Albany City court alleges.

In 2011, the Anne S. Urban Irrevocable Trust (AUIT)—named after Pauline Bruggeman's sister—was created using some funds from the Bruggeman trusts. Sherwood was named trustee of the trust and Lagan was named successor trustee, court documents say. In one instance, a sub-trust with roughly $2 million was to be returned to the Pauline Bruggemen Revocable Trust for distribution to six named charities upon Anne Urban's death. But rather than returning those funds after Urban died in 2013, the funds were disposed of through the AUIT primarily to benefit Sherwood and Lagan, the complaint alleges.

As part of the scheme, both men allegedly conspired to deceive an Ohio attorney into sending $2 million of Pauline Bruggeman's other sister's money to the AUIT under the guise that it would be sent to charity, the complaint claims. Both Sherwood and Lagan allegedly shared the proceeds. The complaint also alleges that Sherwood and Lagan formed the Empire Capital Trust to benefit themselves and funded it with over $1 million of stolen money.

In January 2015, they allegedly transferred $3.6 million from AUIT to a Trustco Bank account in Sherwood's name and $2.7 million from the AUIT to a Trustco Bank account in Lagan's name.