Buffalo Lawyer Sued for Faking Mortgages and Defrauding Longtime Friend

11/01/12

This week, Thomas J. Wojciechowski, a Southtowns judge and former partner and head of the Bouvier Partnership LLP, Buffalo, was sued by a longtime friend. Donald Miller accused Wojciechowski, who was his longtime friend, of fraud and forgery and of stealing $368,000.


According to the lawsuit, it appears Wojciechowski carefully planned for every contingency while creating fictitious mortgage documents with forged signatures of some of his other clients and offered them to Miller. At least 13 such fictitious mortgages valued at a total nearing $500,000 were created by the adroit attorney.

Miller was already 71 years of age, and Wojciechowski was not only managing Miller’s funds and estate planning, but he was also named executor in Miller’s will. In the case of death of the complainant, the loss of the mortgage money and the mortgages, which were fake and never recorded, would have remained unnoticed.

Also earlier this year, Wojciechowski became divorced from his wife and deeded their home to her in September, no more remaining owner of their residential property. On the same day in September, he also granted power of attorney over himself to his son, Thomas.

Allegedly, Wojciechowski had told Miller that he would invest Miller’s money to purchase mortgages where Miller would be paid both principal and interest. Wojciechowski instructed Miller to make payments should be made in care of him at the Bouvier law firm.

In total, Miller deposited about more than five hundred thousand dollars according to Wojciechowski’s instructions into the client trust fund at Bouvier law firm. Miller received copies of mortgage notes with names of borrowers, collateral property, and amount of mortgages. Miller also received payments from Bouvier intermittently, and received about $150, 000 in the same manner. Miller’s attorney, Thomas Burton, told the Buffalo News, “All he got was some payments back disguised as interest from the phony mortgages … In reality, it was just his own money coming back to him.”

Miller had suspicions in August, when he failed in trying to contact Wojciechowski at Bouvier. Then Miller met with other partners at Bouvier and for the first time in nine years received a client-trust account statement. The statement showed that only $423,000 had been deposited in funds, and no mention of another $90,000 paid by three checks in 2010 and 2011. Also there were numerous suspicious transactions including purported income tax payments, though Miller always paid his own taxes separately. There was nothing left in the fund, which was a major component of Miller’s retirement, or so he had trusted it to be.

The Bouvier law firm has denied any involvement though all checks had been made to the name of the law firm and the Bouvier law firm was listed as the “payee” on every check sent by Miller. However, apparently the law firm is washing its hands off the affair as it claims to have expelled Wojciechowski from partnership, as soon as his conduct came to their notice. It says it has no liability in the matter.

Miller’s lawsuit has been assigned to State Supreme Court Judge Joseph R. Glownia and shows that between Oct. 1, 2003 and Aug. 31, 2012, Miller sent $513,000 in checks to Bouvier Partnership for deposit into his client trust account. There’s nothing left except some fake mortgages.