Resignation Accepted
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department accepted the resignation of two law partners (orders linked here and here)
From the Fraade order
Respondent acknowledges that he is currently the subject of an investigation by the Attorney Grievance Committee (AGC) involving allegations that include at least the following acts of professional misconduct: between August 16 and October 3, 2012, while retained to represent an attorney serving as the executor of an estate and as the trustee of a related trust, respondent and his law partner (Frederick M. Mintz) willfully misappropriated $125,000 by transferring such funds from an estate account into their law firm’s escrow accounts, and then transferring $70,000 of those funds into the firm’s operating account and using them to pay the firm’s operating expenses. Respondent adds that, on April 11, 2017, when the Surrogate’s Court issued a decision pursuant to petitions to settle the accounts of the executor and trustee, the $487,014.50 representing the balance of funds belonging to the estate/trust were not kept in an attorney trust account. Further, aggregate funds of $360,000 were held in a separate account titled “The Mintz Fraade Law Firm, P.C.,” which respondent claims was “created to be utilized for replenishing the . . . escrow funds.” Respondent attests that he cannot successfully defend against the allegations based on the facts and circumstances of his professional conduct as described herein.
The Mintz order recites the same acknowledged misconduct.
A resignation under these circumstances is treated as a disbarment.
From the New York Post is an unrelated matter involving one partner
Maybe Alan P. Fraade — pronounced fraud — should have considered a career other than law.
A federal judge recently sanctioned the Manhattan lawyer for lying that his client was based in the UK instead of Brooklyn to duck a lawsuit over allegedly pirated TV content.
On July 18, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses found that Fraade repeatedly swore in court papers that a Brighton Beach man named Asaf Yevdeyev — who was selling content boxes similar to ones marketed by Apple TV out of an Avenue Z storefront — lived in the UK and was not associated with his client in a related pirating case, Panorama.
Panorama was accused of ripping off content from producers of Russian TV programs akin to Netflix.
Judge Moses found that Fraade’s retainer check and other payments were signed by Yevdeyev.
“The guy’s name is pronounced fraud,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Raymond Dowd, about his legal adversary, Fraade.
“Charles Dickens couldn’t have gotten away with this one,” Dowd quipped.
Fraade is a partner in the small Madison Avenue firm Mintz & Fraade. Last year, he represented hard partying finance crook Edward Downe Jr., who was given a controversial pardon from Bill Clinton.
Fraade told The Post, “We deny that we lied about anything or misstated anything. We’ll be preparing an appropriate response to submit to the court.”
(Mike Frisch)