Monday, August 13, 2012

How insiders snatch millions from estates in the scandal-scarred Surrogate Courts

If you’re a lawyer in New York, there’s no sweeter deal than getting assigned to an estate case in Surrogate’s Court.

The work is often routine — selling assets, paying bills, contacting heirs — but the pay can reach into the millions.

Landing such a gig requires currying favor with one of the city’s seven surrogate judges, who handle wills and estates. They have the power to appoint lawyers and approve their sometimes jaw-dropping invoices.

The jobs often go to the judges’ friends, associates or campaign contributors, court authorities admit. Looting of the estates can sometimes result.

The most recent example involves Bronx Judge Lee Holzman, who last week faced removal from the surrogate bench after he signed off on legal work that was never done.

The bills, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, totaled $300,000 and went to the judge’s associate, lawyer Michael Lippman, a Democratic Party crony who ran Holzman’s campaign financing, raising $125,000, a court watchdog claims.

Lippman then got into money trouble himself, racking up $1 million in gambling debts and allegedly faking bills to cover his losses.

Prosecutors say they uncovered the cooked books and charged him with fraud.

Another alleged thief preyed on a lucrative and largely unsupervised part of the system — cases in which there is no will.

Such cases go to public administrators, who work with Surrogate’s Court judges in handling their finances.

In May, Richard Paul, the bookkeeper for the Brooklyn public administrator, was indicted for stealing $2.6 million from these estates, allegedly manipulating the check-writing process to get at the cash.

Judges who allow fraudulent pay-outs are “a disgrace to the legal profession and to the state of New York,” said Monroe Freedman, a Hofstra University professor and leading expert on legal ethics. “They should be removed from the bench and disbarred.”

Freedman said an entrenched system of favor-trading, with hints of bribery, has persisted for decades.

“They’re stealing from the client, which is one of the worst things you can do,” he said. “I can’t think of much worse. The judges are not only condoning it, but they’re helping lawyers do it.”

Even when there is no illegality, huge sums vanish.

A decade after Wall Street investment banker Ted Ammon was beaten to death in his East Hampton home, a group of politically connected lawyers pummeled his estate with $10 million in fees, records show.

That amounts to 20 percent of his $50 million fortune, well above the 6 percent rate that court administrators deem acceptable.


Full Article and Source:
How insiders snatch millions from estates in the scandal-scarred Surrogate Courts

9 comments:

StandUp said...

Great article, NASGA! The elderly and disabled in NY are gold mines for unethical fiduciaries and it's all sanctioned by Surrogate's Court.

Anonymous said...

Probate court is the biggest LOTTO win in the nation with an endless stream of others money, piles and piles of money and people just don't get the seriousness and what's waiting for them and their heirs.

In Probate 'estate' cases the source, the owner, of the 'estate' is deceased with vultures swooping in - violent greedy hungry bunch with an endless appetite for more more more.

Now keep in mind in conservatorship cases in guardianship cases it's the same group!!! of vultures, judges, lawyers and their gang of thieves but in guardianship the vultures swoop in pick the bones and clean out the estate while the source, the owner of the estate, the ward of the state is STILL ALIVE.

Well what do you suppose happens when the ward of the state comes into this racket with significant assets? And the vultures pick him/her into poverty?

We the taxpayers have another victim on Medicaid or the 'problem' is eliminated via drugging, forced to expire without food and water.

Think this can't happen to you or your loved ones in the USA?

jerri said...

oh what a surprise this is an example of the pattern nationwide well i guess later than sooner is better to have the diry tricks the truth out in print maybe the reporters are getting braver standing up for right vs wrong to the schemes and scams of the racket these so called judges are a disgrace to those find judges who wear their robes with pride and dignity while conducting themselves to high standards then you have these scumbags driven by endless need to feed their greed revolving door with no work i can see out of work lawyers digging and clawing their way into the favors of the probate judges to get on the a list of pals i would love to be a snake in their snake pit where they share their joy and unjust wealth laughing and partying knowing more money is coming their way karma baby

Surrogate Victim said...

The LEACHING PREDATORS of the Surrogate's/Probate Courts extract their 'Death Tax' ficilitated by their fellow attorney (the inside guy) who is alleged to be representing the family since he/she is being paid by them! GREAT Business Model/CON

Chad said...

Wow, this article says it all. It's all about money and them getting to it. The suffering they cause doens't matter to them.

Luis said...

I used to think the system was sick.
Now I think it's sicker than sick!

Anonymous said...

This article says it loud and clear!

Edwin Solano said...

It is clear in this case, How a law, designed primarily to protect the elderly and their well being is manipulated and abused by greed and corruption of those people, who unfortunately are the very same people called by the law to implement it.

Anonymous said...

In Colorado the system is appointing a court conservator who then hires friends over and over again.

In reviewing the court docs of a case taking place there, my mouth dropped to the ground. These people have hired numerous law firms and attorneys and all rack up bills between themselves.

The conservator here Janice Eder has racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars paying and getting approval for various law firms fees through the court.

When the judge in this case held the attorneys taping into the vast amounts of money , they had one of the attorneys on the take as their expert witness Stan Kent esq justify the others fees and his own.

In this case I think they spent around 300K in 3 months when the judge cut them off until they could validate their spending- more over time.

In researching this the fiduciary Janice Eder and one of her attorneys Stan Kent have been sued for breeching their fiduciary duties in the past and settled out of court.

This lady also has an additional law firm in Denver Wade Ash Woods Hill & Farley that took the money of another NASGA member Matthew Keenan , representing her for this estate as well as other attorneys.

In the case of Matthew Keenan ( he was incapacitated when a hospital gave him the wrong medication and then after he got an award the Denver / Colorado system stripped him of this, leaving him broke" the court assisted guardians and conservators in spending his money and when he asked the bank to refund about $65,000 it had spent from his estate to oppose him. The bank responded by hiring the same " prestigious Denver law firm — Wade Ash Woods Hill & Farley" — to defend its decisions.

The next round in court cost more.

It looks like the same people, psychologists and group are involved in other cases.

Read more: Bank appointed as disabled man's conservator fought him, then billed him - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/dontmiss/ci_16175943#ixzz23p7ujWM8
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse


My question is how many law firms does this conservator lady need and the bigger question is WHY and how many other people is this group using the legal system to take money from?