Straw Buyers
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has disbarred an attorney
On November 23, 2022, respondent was convicted, upon his plea of guilty, in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in violation of 18 USC § 1349, a felony. The indictment to which respondent pleaded guilty alleged, in pertinent part: “It was the goal of the conspiracy for [respondent and his co-conspirators] to unlawfully enrich themselves by: (a) recruiting straw buyers to purchase residential properties in the straw buyers’ names; (b) providing down payment funds for the straw buyers; (c) causing false and fraudulent Loan Applications, HUD-1 Settlement Statements, and related documents to be submitted to the Victim Bank to influence the Victim Bank’s decision to approve and fund loans for the straw buyers; (d) diverting the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds for their own use; (e) paying the monthly mortgage payments for the straw buyers for a period of time; and (f) causing the mortgage loans to the straw buyers to enter into default.” Further, respondent and his co-conspirators “caused the Victim Bank to wire the fraudulently obtained loan funds to [respondent’s] attorney trust account. In total, the Victim Bank wired loan funds of more than $4 million to [respondent] and other settlement agents.”
During his plea allocution, respondent admitted the allegations, as well as other dishonest conduct, by which he and his co-conspirators defrauded Wells Fargo, among other financial institutions…
Respondent’s plea admissions that he engaged in a systematic, ongoing course of conduct involving false pretenses, through which he defrauded banks and wrongfully obtained approximately $4 million in loan proceeds, read in conjunction with the indictment to which he pleaded guilty, correspond to the elements of the following New York felony offenses: Penal Law § 190.65(1)(b) (scheme to defraud in the first degree), Penal Law § 105.10 (conspiracy in the fourth degree), and Penal Law § 155.42 (grand larceny in the first degree). Thus, respondent’s felony conviction, which is essentially similar to the aforesaid New York felony offenses, is a proper predicate for automatic disbarment pursuant to Judiciary Law § 90(4)(b) (see Matter of Merker, 140 AD3d at 4; Matter of Kim, 209 AD2d 127 [1st Dept 1995]).
(Mike Frisch)