Mitch Kossoff’s Attempt to Halt Suits for Missing Escrow Funds Dismissed
By Nicholas Rizzi June 30, 2021 6:53 pm
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A judge dismissed real estate lawyer Mitchell Kossoff’s attempts to halt the multiple lawsuits against him over missing escrow funds.
Justice Jennifer Schecter ruled on Monday that the numerous civil proceedings against Kossoff, who pulled a vanishing act in April, can continue despite his lawyers’ attempts to get a stay against them.
The decision was first reported by Crain’s New York Business.
Kossoff, who represented some of New York City’s largest multifamily landlords, went missing in April, with his clients and partners in his eponymous law firm reportedly unable to reach him for weeks.
He was hit with lawsuits for at least $4 million from various firms, including SSM Realty Group, for missing escrow funds as well as four landlords trying to involuntarily force him into bankruptcy.
Kossoff’s lawyer, A. Michael Furman, later filed a motion to stay the cases. Furman argued that since Kossoff is under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District District of New York, submitting paperwork for the civil cases would violate “Kossoff’s constitutional right against self-incrimination,” which Schecter didn’t agree with.
“There is no indication in the record that actual criminal proceedings have been commenced and the primary documents sought — financial records of his firm — cannot be withheld by him on Fifth Amendment grounds,” Schecter wrote in her decision. “Indeed, Kossoff is in default because he has refused to answer the complaints and motions for default judgments have been filed; thus, there may not even be a need to invoke the Fifth Amendment at a deposition or trial.”
Furman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After Kossoff went missing, his law firm seems to have dissolved with its staff resigning and filing a lawsuit claiming they’re missing paychecks.
His mother, Phyllis Kossoff, claimed her son fabricated her signature on three notarized merchant cash advance agreements for more than $2 million of defaulted loans, court records show.
“I did not learn of the fraud until last week when my son, Mitchell Kossoff, told me that there are some documents which had my signature but which I had not signed,” Phyllis Kossoff wrote in court records.
Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.
