BK Lawyer Stole $240K From Woman Selling Late Sister's Estate: DA

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn lawyer is facing grand larceny charges after stealing nearly $240,000 from a woman selling her late sister's estate, prosecutors announced.

Antoni Moszczynski, 67, was arraigned Monday on second-degree grand larceny charges for the December 2019 sale, where he transferred a down payment from a client's escrow account into his personal bank and then stopped answering her calls, according to prosecutors.

Moszczynski, who lived in New Jersey and had an office in Greenpoint, had been helping the woman sell her late sister's property on Leonard Street.

“This defendant allegedly abused his power and betrayed his client to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to which he was not entitled and has not returned despite the victim’s repeated attempts to contact him," District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "We will now seek to hold him accountable for this flagrant and brazen theft."

Moszczynski is accused of transferring $210,000 of a $239,500 down payment from the client's escrow account into his own bank account just a week after she wired the money. Within three months, he had withdrawn or spent the remainder of the down payment, according to prosecutors.

The woman, who sold the Leonard Street home for nearly $2.4 million, hired a different attorney to represent the estate for the closing, which happened in June, prosecutors said.

Moszczynski has not answered any calls from the woman or her attorney and has not given back any of the down payment, prosecutors said.

He was released without bail on Monday and will appear in court again in July.

Patch was not able to reach Moszczynski for comment.

He was one of at least two lawyers the district attorney has recently caught stealing escrow payments from their clients in Brooklyn.

Gonzalez also announced Monday that a Sunset Park attorney had been sentenced to one to three years in prison for stealing about $280,000 in down payments from two clients he represented between 2018 and 2019. That attorney, Edmundo Roman-Perez, pleaded guilty in December, according to Gonzalez.

If you believe that you or someone you know is the victim of fraud or theft perpetrated by the defendant, please call the District Attorney’s Action Center at (718) 250-2340.