Mount Vernon lawyer disbarred for misappropriating client funds

By Bill Heltzel 

A Mount Vernon lawyer has been disbarred for misappropriating client funds and has admitted that even more money might be missing.

Alvin James Thomas submitted an application to the state Second Appellate Division on Oct, 17 to resign as an attorney, acknowledging that he is the subject of two investigations by the local lawyers’ grievance committee.

The investigations concern “willful misappropriation” of $50,000 from Afsana Chowdhury and $188,000 from Oluwaleke Osinubi, according to the appellate court’s opinion.

Thomas admitted that he had failed to maintain bookkeeping records for his escrow account, the opinion states, “and that there may be more client funds misappropriated or misapplied because he has not done a complete accounting of his escrow account.”

Thomas also declared that he cannot successfully defend himself against allegations of professional misconduct.

Thomas was admitted to the practice of law in 2001, and for the past dozen years he has filed nearly three dozen bankruptcy cases.

One of his purported clients, LaVerne B. Reece of Yonkers, accused him last year of falsely filing two bankruptcy cases on her behalf in 2017 and 2018.

“At no time did I authorized him to do so,” Reece stated in a complaint filed last year in U.S. District Court, Manhattan, “and have not met with him in over a decade.”

Reece said she hired Thomas in 2000 to manage a rental property. Then in 2021 she discovered that the mortgage had not been paid for 19 months.

She claimed that Thomas had taken out additional mortgages on the property, without her knowledge, and collected tenant rents but did not pay the mortgages.

Reece said “fraudulent bankruptcy entries” have ruined her credit.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint citing lack of jurisdiction and recommended that Reece seek assistance from a legal clinic.

In the current disciplinary action, a panel of five appellate court justices granted Thomas’ resignation on Dec. 21, and disbarred him.

They ordered him to pay restitution to Osinubi, the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection,” and to “any other individuals who filed or may file claims against him.”

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Mount Vernon lawyer disbarred for misappropriating client funds