By Laurie Villanueva
The attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. are the first to admit Adam Hochfelder has a brilliant mind.
By his early 30s, Hochfelder had already established himself as a commanding real estate mogul in New York with ambitions so high that few properties were off the table. He co-founded Max Capital at age 25 and managed interests in or owned $2.7 billion in real estate at the firm's peak. As the New York Daily News put it, he “bought midtown skyscrapers like Monopoly trinkets.”
But his constant drive for bigger and better ventures meant his ambitions extended to maintaining his facade of financial success by defrauding those around him — investors, business associates, lenders and even family members.
When Hochfelder’s relationship grew strained with Max Capital co-founder Richard Kalikow, he assumed a $35 million separation debt he knew he couldn’t pay. He then forged documents to conceal the depth of his financial troubles and acquired funds under the guise of exciting real estate opportunities to continue the ruse. He used around $17 million in bank loans and misguided investments to cover his debts, legal fees and lavish lifestyle, including private jets, hot tickets around town and private school tuition for his children.
The district attorney’s office eventually caught up to Hochfelder’s schemes and the fallen real estate mogul was sentenced to 2 ⅔ - 8 years in prison.
Despite finally being brought to justice, Hochfelder’s brilliance in his prime meant he diligently protected the stolen funds from being reclaimed by those he scammed. For his victims to see economic retribution, they needed just as brilliant a law firm to fight for them. Enter Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.
Finding the buried assets within Hochfelder’s widespread financial history that could be seized to repay his victims was no easy feat. In the initial criminal judgment, Hochfelder was ordered to pay $9.5 million in restitution to his victims, about 13% of which was designated for the commercial lender represented by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC. When Adam Leitman Bailey and his partner Colin Kaufman started to fight for their client’s funds, Hochfelder had only paid about $17,000 in restitution. At that rate, it would have taken Hochfelder 829 years to pay off the restitution, and the firm left in charge of collections was too short-staffed to dig into Hochfelder’s many business interests and prove he had more assets to pay up.
But the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. knew better than to assess Hochfelder at face value — his brilliance in preserving his empire did not end when he went to prison like most would believe. Rather than searching for a single large asset that could result in the client’s entire debt being covered, the team knew it required a multi-faceted, unwavering investigation into Hochfelder’s corporate past and present.
The law firm exhibited unrivaled persistence in the tedious effort to uncover Hochfelder’s true finances, sending more than 60 informational subpoenas to Hochfelder’s relatives, business associates and governmental agencies.
Adam Leitman Bailey and his team dug through tens of thousands of documents turned over through subpoenas, interviews, depositions and government record requests, leaving no check or pay stub they could find unexamined. Attorneys even scoured Hochfelder’s personal Instagram and Twitter accounts to prove he was continuing his lavish lifestyle despite being employed as only an “office assistant” at the real estate firm he started with soon after leaving jail.
The information Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. turned over in this exhaustive process proved Hochfelder had more to cough up for restitution than he was letting on. After Hochfelder refused to come in for a deposition and comply with Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C’s document demands, the firm brought its potential evidence of Hochfelder’s hidden income to the district attorney’s office, leading to the disgraced real estate mogul facing additional charges for schemes he ran after his first jail sentence.
After he coughed up $1 million towards his initial restitution order and was charged with a misdemeanor, he began complying with Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. 's bounty on behalf of its lender client, bringing the team the documents it requested. Through this, Adam Leitman Bailey and his team gained the initial data and clues so they could further their investigation.
Hochfelder recognized the crucial role Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.'s scrappy investigation played in the renewed inquiries into his misconduct and he came to respect the firm. He began cooperating with the attorneys in interviews, an almost unthinkable move after years of constant coverups to avoid paying his debts, and even entered settlement negotiation to resolve his debts with Arbor. His cooperation revealed multiple “loans” from past associates, his employer and his family members, including $590,000 from his father, with no clear expectation of repayment.
When those settlement talks stalled, Adam Leitman Bailey helped his client identify the most advantageous route to collect on their debts. The court determined in Hochfelder’s initial criminal case that ALBPC’s client held a valid interest in half of a Manhattan luxury apartment occupied under a life estate interest by Hochfelder’s former father-in-law.
Based on the former father-in-law’s age and the documents Adam Leitman Bailey and his team were able to secure, the client opted to wait for the termination of the life estate, as the eventual title to the apartment guaranteed millions of dollars to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. 's lender client. Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. was successful in ensuring Hochfelder paid Arbor’s portion of the restitution in full.
