A Korean-American lawyer in New York has been sentenced to a felony for embezzling client money.
On February. 4, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York sentenced Michael Lee(Hyun W. Lee), 51, to four years and six months in prison for wire fraud for stealing and using the proceeds of his clients’ real estate transactions. The court also ordered him to forfeit $3.27 million and pay $3.29 million in restitution to his victims.
According to federal prosecutors, Lee, who was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2003, provided legal services for real estate transactions in the Korean-American neighborhood of Flushing, Queens. He induced his clients to deposit the proceeds of their real estate transactions into his escrow account, which he then used for his personal use, prosecutors said.
Between February 2018 and March 2020, Lee misappropriated the funds deposited into the escrow account to pay for casino gambling and his own restaurant, prosecutors said. In particular, Lee misrepresented the balance of the escrow account deposits to avoid customer suspicion.
He allegedly even created false documents to show that the escrow account had a $3 million deposit to show that the client’s funds were safe. However, only $25,000 was allegedly left in the escrow account at the time.
In March 2020, Lee was charged with misappropriating client funds by the New York State Ombudsman’s Office and disbarred from practicing law.
By HYOUNGJAE KIM [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
