Edward Harold King resigned from the New York City bench last year while the state was investigating complaints involving his professional conduct, and now federal prosecutors have charged him with an alleged real-estate fraud scheme involving investors’ money. In court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, prosecutors said King and politically connected developer Yechiel “Sam” Sprei abused King’s role and “lend false legitimacy” to supposed investment opportunities, according to the Associated Press. King, 72, and Sprei, 37, were arrested by IRS Criminal Investigation agents and were released on bail, with both scheduled to return to federal court in Brooklyn on Monday to finalize bond arrangements.
The criminal case was brought on wire fraud conspiracy charges, federal prosecutors said, after King left the bench at the end of last year. Prosecutors said King and Sprei duped two investors into forking over $6.5 million for what they described as a bogus property bid and then failed to return all but a fraction of the money, the AP reported. During the defendants’ first appearance, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Wang told the judge that prosecutors are investigating “one of several schemes” involving the transaction described in the criminal case, according to the AP account.
Wang also discussed Sprei’s finances, saying it was “safe to say many, many millions of dollars” have moved through his bank accounts in the last few years, the AP reported. In court, prosecutors also described what agents found during Sprei’s arrest. Wang said that during the arrest, Sprei lied to federal agents about having only a cellphone and that agents executing a search warrant seized the phone and later found a second phone while patting Sprei down, according to the AP.
Nocella, in a statement, characterized the case as involving millions of dollars stolen from investors, “by cynically leveraging King’s position as a sitting judge to lend false legitimacy to supposed investment opportunities,” the AP reported. The former judge and the developer did not comment as they left the courthouse, the AP said, and King’s lawyer, Michael Vitaliano, declined to comment while Sprei’s lawyer, Ezra Lent, also declined to comment.
Federal prosecutors said the alleged scheme included pitching investors on fictitious investment opportunities with promises that their money would be kept safe in attorney escrow accounts and returned on demand if investors ended their involvement. The AP reported that prosecutors said Sprei and King offered two investors an opportunity to buy commercial real estate in Freehold, New Jersey, through a bankruptcy auction in November 2024. Prosecutors said Sprei told the investors that all bidders first needed to show “proof of liquidity” and that they could do so by depositing $6.5 million into King’s escrow account.
Prosecutors also said Sprei told the investors that King was both an independent escrow agent and a judge. The investors then wired the money to King’s account, prosecutors said, with the understanding it would be left untouched and not spent or transferred without the investors’ permission. But within days, prosecutors alleged, King and Sprei transferred several million dollars to a bank account in Sprei’s name.
When the investors exercised their right to have the money back, prosecutors said King offered excuses and alternatives, including saying he would have his lawyer deposit the funds with an unspecified court. Prosecutors said King and Sprei eventually returned $1.5 million to the investors, but they have not yet returned the rest. The AP reported that the case could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if the defendants are convicted.
The criminal allegations follow King’s resignation from the bench on Dec. 31, 2025, which occurred after a state Commission on Judicial Conduct investigation, the AP reported. The AP said the Commission’s administrator, Robert Tembeckjian, called the allegations “so egregious as to warrant his permanent departure from the bench” when the commission accepted King’s resignation. Among the complaints, prosecutors said the Commission found that King was involved in a scheme to defraud real estate investors and that he continued to act as a lawyer—including by accepting funds into his own attorney escrow accounts—despite rules barring full-time judges from practicing law, acting as fiduciaries or engaging in business activities.
King became a judge in 2023, the AP reported. He won a seat on the New York City Civil Court in Brooklyn and was later appointed to the state’s main trial court in June 2024, after earlier work in private practice and appointments related to real estate disputes, as described by the AP.