An attorney accused of ignoring “multiple warning signs” of a $17 million fraud carried out by his former partner has been suspended from the practice of law for three years.

Robert V. Fonte claimed he had no reason to suspect that Anthony Bellettieri, the founder of the now-defunct Bellettieri, Fonte and Laundonio, was manipulating the firm’s escrow accounts, and argued that he should not be punished for his partner’s misdeeds.