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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tembeckjian's Corrupt Judicial Panel Accuses Surrogate of Wrongdoing

Conduct Panel Accuses Surrogate of Inaction in P.A. Counsel Scandal
The New York Law Journal by Daniel Wise  -  September 13, 2011

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has accused Bronx Surrogate Lee L. Holzman of failing to turn in to the authorities a former counsel to the Bronx public administrator after learning the attorney, Michael Lippman, had received payments exceeding those authorized by an oversight commission headed by the surrogate.  The charges became public when Surrogate Holzman waived his right yesterday to have the commission proceedings against him remain confidential.  The commission issued charges on Jan. 4, 2011. But while the first witness was on the stand yesterday, a judge in Manhattan ordered the hearing temporarily stayed.  In its formal complaint, the commission charged Surrogate Holzman with misapplying guidelines for the payment of counsel to the public administrator in a case linked to Mr. Lippman, who was indicted in 2010 for collecting $300,000 in excessive fees (NYLJ, July 9, 2010).  The commission's complaint charged that in 2005-06 when Surrogate Holzman became aware that Mr. Lippman had received fees in excess of the 2002 guidelines, the judge failed to report Mr. Lippman to either law enforcement or professional disciplinary authorities.  Surrogate Holzman similarly failed to report payments that had been advanced to Mr. Lippman by a former Bronx public administrator, according to the complaint.  Surrogate Holzman's lawyer, David Godosky fired back that Surrogate Holzman "took immediate action" in late 2005 and early 2006 as soon as he learned of any misconduct in the Public Administrator's Office.  "Investigations by the Bronx District Attorney's Office, the New York City Department of Investigations and the FBI all concluded that the problem was in the Public Administrator's Office, not the Surrogate's Court," said Mr. Godosky, of Godosky & Gentile. Only the conduct commission has taken the position that Surrogate Holzman is "somehow responsible under a theory of respondeat superior," he added.  Surrogate Holzman became the chairman of the Administrative Board of the Offices of the Public Administrators in 2002, the year the body formulated guidelines for the payment of counsel to public administrators. The guidelines, which are not mandatory, set compensation at 6 percent of the first $750,000 at issue in an estate case, with the percentage declining in increments to 1.5 percent for amounts exceeding $5 million.  Surrogate Holzman remained the board's chairman through 2009 and continues to serve as a member.  The Surrogate's Court in each county appoints both the public administrator and his or her counsel. Public administrators are responsible for distributing the assets of persons who die without a will and who have no close relative to wind up their affairs.  Mr. Lippman was indicted in 2010 for receiving a total of $300,000 in excessive fees in five cases. Also, according to the conduct commission complaint, he received improper advances on his fees from a former public administrator, Esther Rodriguez. Those advances had not been approved by Surrogate Holzman.  The commission listed nearly 50 cases in which Mr. Lippman had received either excessive fees or advances on his earnings.  After learning of the improper payments in 2006, Surrogate Holzman fired both Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Lippman, according to the commission's complaint, but allowed Mr. Lippman to continue working with the understanding that any fees he earned would be applied against the excessive or advance fees already paid to him.  A new public administrator and counsel were appointed, and during the next three years, Mr. Lippman, though no longer counsel, continued to work on 20 percent of the new cases that came into the office, said John J. Reddy Jr., who replaced the interim counsel in 2009.  Any amounts Mr. Lippman earned on those accounts were also used to replenish estates on which Mr. Lippman had received improper payments from Ms. Rodriguez, Mr. Reddy said.  With Mr. Reddy's arrival, Mr. Lippman's work on the Bronx office's cases ceased. At the time, according to Mr. Reddy, about 300 cases remained in which either overpayments or advances had not been worked off by Mr. Lippman.  Now that number is down to 32, he said.  Mr. Reddy said that fees generated by work that he or his firm, Reddy Levy & Ziffer, performed on Mr. Lippman's cases are used to replenish the estates that paid the excessive or advance fees to Mr. Lippman. Mr. Reddy said that to recover his own fees, he would have to sue Mr. Lippman for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Stay Issued

Manhattan Justice Barbara Jaffe stayed the commission hearing yesterday morning while Ms. Rodriguez, the first witness, was on the stand.  Last Thursday Justice Jaffe had denied Surrogate Holzman's Article 78 petition for a stay to enable him to secure testimony from Mr. Lippman, who is certain to invoke his right to protection against self-incrimination until the criminal case is over. The criminal case, brought by the Bronx District Attorney's office, is still in the motion phase.  Surrogate Holzman also asked to delay the commission's hearing until the completion of Mr. Lippman's criminal case so the judge could obtain records compiled by law enforcement agencies in conjunction with the prosecution.  Yesterday, however, Justice Jaffe granted Surrogate Holzman's motion to reargue the Article 78 and stayed the commission hearing until the next court date, Sept. 21.  Daniel Wise can be contacted at dwise@alm.com.

CLICK HERE TO READ DOCUMENTS FROM THE COMMISSION

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, i'm scratching my head wondering if Michael Lippman is related to Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman?????

Anonymous said...

Good 'ole Robert Tembeckjian. When is that fool going to be replaced?

Disgusted said...

The corrupt Surrogate fires Lippman for corruption and then lets him continue to handle cases in her court. Tembeckjian is running a parallel hustle and a cover-up. Just as with the Surrogate Judge, look at what happens, not what is said.

Retired BX Pol said...

Mike Lippman start life as a bag man for Surrogate Judge Burt Gelfand and the Public Administrator at the time. Some may recall that Gelfand was defrocked as a Surrogage Judge by Albany. Gelfand plies his trade as a whoremaster in White Plains. Lippman was a little putz then and now he's a big putz who needs a beat down. And by the way Lee Holzman is getting pressure from other Surrogate's since they fear that this matter with Mike Lippman (who will rat out everyone if pushed) will open the doors to expose the corruption in their courts, so they are in lockdown. They have covered up some of the Lippman story but just maybe it might break open since he hurt a whole lot of people and the FBI knows it. He has been protected and now he's too hot to handle.

Anonymous said...

I SAY START FUCKING SHOOTING

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight. Maybe some of you lawyers can explain this to me.

Holzman and his attorney scratch out a waiver of confidentiality on a piece of lined paper. They then file an art 78 for a stay on the hearings they waived Holzman's rights?

Anonymous said...

are you guys gonna file an art 78 on me, you know you don't want my real paperwork to show up to prove you RICO"D those cases and stole that money, you'll just replace it with that other girls paperwork, is that why you didn't want to request 6 months of testing for that head injury from that doctor with 8 initials after their name instead of your appointed doctors with two initials after their name!
or are you going to falsify that now that I told you about that paperwork! remember 11-2-94 does not lie!

Anonymous said...

are you guys gonna file an art 78 on me, you know you don't want my real paperwork to show up to prove you RICO"D those cases and stole that money, you'll just replace it with that other girls paperwork, is that why you didn't want to request 6 months of testing for that head injury from that doctor with 8 initials after their name instead of your appointed doctors with two initials after their name!
or are you going to falsify that now that I told you about that paperwork! remember 11-2-94 does not lie!

Anonymous said...

Dear Terrance P Flynn,
You are cordially invited to attend the next witch hunt in the Town of Pendleton.

Anonymous said...

Would the Attorney Grievnace please re review every complaint disbar everyone!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Hillary stopped off at Steinhouses so he could forge/falsify medical records again! Hillary bring donuts and cuffs!

Anonymous said...

Norm you still writing for the Buff News still making up stories like the one's that run in peoples minds, like you don't believe in the Bible it is just a made up story for fools! Some people are just plain evil!

Anonymous said...

Norm you still writing for the Buff News still making up stories like the one's that run in peoples minds, like you don't believe in the Bible it is just a made up story for fools! Some people are just plain evil!

Anonymous said...

maybe you guys should stop looking up people license plates, maybe those plates aren't theirs! and those medical records your illegally looking up aren't theirs either, you gossiping bunch of idiots!

Anonymous said...

maybe you guys should stop looking up people license plates, maybe those plates aren't theirs! and those medical records your illegally looking up aren't theirs either, you gossiping bunch of idiots!

Anonymous said...

looks like this whole mess is that they are going after the surrogates in our courts across this state all along! tell me again, it is not the FEDS moving in behind the scenes, BS!

Anonymous said...

looks like this whole mess is that they are going after the surrogates in our courts across this state all along! tell me again, it is not the FEDS moving in behind the scenes, BS!

Anonymous said...

and OCA!

Anonymous said...

and OCA!

Anonymous said...

they are all corrupt, they have always been corrrupt, just depends on what team you are on!

Anonymous said...

they are all corrupt, they have always been corrrupt, just depends on what team you are on!

Anonymous said...

that's how they caught them with me, they corrupted everything for 20 years and I mean everything and they are still doing it so they do not get caught! so they think!

Anonymous said...

I guess they want to fire someone else so they will use me!

Anonymous said...

I guess they want to fire someone else so they will use me!

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