Photo Courtesy of Keil Law
Kim allegedly stole money by claiming that he could help one of the firm’s clients and another homeowner in distress and in danger of foreclosure with loan modifications on their mortgages.
By Forum Staff
A 40-year old paralegal formerly employed at a Jackson Heights law firm has been charged with stealing $80,000, and attempting to steal an additional $44,000, by claiming that he could help one of the firm’s clients and another homeowner in distress and in danger of foreclosure with loan modifications on their mortgages.
DA Brown’s office indentified as Hyun Do Kim, aka Billy Kim, 40, of Whitestone. He was arraigned on a criminal complaint charging him with second- and third-degree grand larceny, first-degree identity theft, third-degree attempted grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and third-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.
According to the criminal charges, when Kim was employed as a paralegal at a Jackson Heights law firm between September 2009 and April 2012, he told numerous clients he could help them with loan modifications – which was not within the scope of his employment at the law firm.
Kim told one client he would take monthly payments from him and forward them to the mortgage company. He gave the client copies of false payment records and receipts for $70,000 which never was applied to the mortgage.
In September 2015, a 69-year-old homeowner in danger of foreclosure contacted Kim about a loan modification for a property he owned with an elderly relative. Kim told the two property owners to make payments to his company, JC Financial of NY, instead of sending payments to their mortgage company. They paid Kim more than $10,000 for the loan modification which was never completed. The Bayside house was foreclosed upon the house was sold at auction.
While the loan modification was pending, Kim offered assistance for the client’s second house. Kim provided the client with a fax cover sheet that was purportedly from a Westbury law firm, acting as a debt collector, and which directed the client to make an initial payment of $44,000 via certified check to begin the modification process and avoid foreclosure. Suspicious of the fax, the client visited the Westbury law firm and discovered that the document was forged.
“Unbeknownst to his employer, the defendant allegedly developed a side business in which he told clients of the law firm that he could help them with modifying mortgage loans on properties that they owned and oftentimes met with them at the law firm. Instead of helping people with their mortgage problems, the defendant is accused of helping himself to their money, stealing tens of thousands of dollars,” said DA Brown.
Kim, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $200,000 bail and to return to court on July 11, 2017.
