Real Estate Lawyer Disbarred for Forging Plan Acceptance Letters

A Brooklyn real estate lawyer, Eduard Fridman, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to forging condominium plan acceptance letters from the office of the New York Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau, and later filing some of them with the New York City Department of Finance. His acts allowed his clients (who were in the dark about his conduct) to illegally convert buildings to condominiums and sell them.

In his plea deal, Fridman avoided jail, but forfeited his license and agreed to pay $100,000 in civil penalties. In addition, he will face five years of probation and has accepted a permanent injunction prohibiting him from working in the securities or condominium businesses in New York.

Fridman is also automatically disbarred for seven years in New York as he admitted to committing one count of felony securities fraud before New York Supreme Court Justice Melissa C. Jackson.

Fridman forged six letters, filing three forgeries to the Department of Finance for establishing tax lots for the apartments to be sold, and submitted three to his clients to make the condominium plans appear legal. In New York, a developer cannot build or sell condominiums without acceptance letters from the Real Estate Finance Bureau.

Speaking on the issue, Attorney General Schneiderman said, "It's shocking that a member of the bar would forge the signatures of attorneys in my office to fraudulently sell condominiums to the public."

The scheme was discovered in December last year when one of the developments was transferred to another developer. The counsel for the new developer submitted one of the acceptance letters to the bureau and came to learn of the forgery.

Through separate forgeries, Fridman had tried to pass off 88 illegal residential condo units as legal. Eleven of them have been sold already, and the Attorney General's office has taken measures to ensure the homeowners have legal titles to their properties.

Schneiderman said, "The real estate lawyers and professionals in my office are here to protect condominium and co-op buyers from fraud, and it will remain our priority to prosecute unscrupulous lawyers like Fridman who undermine the public trust with false filings and forgeries."

Fridman's forgeries relate to condominiums at 282 Troy Avenue; 26 & 28 Bay 50th Street; 137 St. Nicholas Avenue; and 2830 West 16th Street. It has been learned that he had forged another letter related to the condominiums at 2-03-17 27th Avenue & 26-37-41 2nd Street in Queens.