NY real estate attorney Mitchell Kossoff was disfellowshipped

Attorney boards in New York stripped Mitchell Kossoff of his license after the real estate attorney pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars in client funds in December.

Kossoff, the owner of the now-defunct law firm Kossoff PLLC, pleaded guilty in the New York County Superior Court to counts of first, second and third degree grand larceny and first degree conspiracy to commit fraud.

Prosecutors said Kossoff embezzled more than $14.6 million from at least 35 people and companies, which he admitted in his plea agreement, New York’s appeals division, First Department, said in its Thursday order barring Kossoff.

Walter Mack, Kossoff’s criminal defense attorney, said in an email the official disqualification was anticipated as a result of his client’s guilty plea and that Kossoff “filed his resignation from the bar” a year ago.

The New York Circuit Court of Appeals said Kossoff did not respond to the court’s Attorneys’ Complaints Committee’s request to bar him.

Kossoff, a fixture in the New York real estate market, began transferring funds from his clients’ accounts in December 2017 and using the money to support another family business and for personal expenses, prosecutors said. That included spending an average of $16,000 a month on personal credit card bills and $19,000 a month renting a luxury apartment in Manhattan.

Prosecutors said Kossoff, 68, will be sentenced in April and could serve from 4 1/2 to 13 1/2 years in prison. A spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.