Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today that two men were charged with stealing over $1.5 million from dozens of businesses around the United States by operating a series of fraudulent “collection agencies.”
           
The defendants are LIONEL FUHRMAN and  STEVEN KING. 

The investigation revealed that the defendants, using various corporate names and operating out of a West 35th Street office, a post office box or their homes, solicited small and medium sized businesses by telephone and FAX, offering to collect their outstanding debts in exchange for a percentage of the amount recovered. They routinely contacted their client’s debtors, successfully collected the outstanding debts, and kept all of the money for themselves, never reporting the successful collections to their clients. In some instances, the defendants would request additional “litigation fees” from clients after they had already collected and stolen the debt. When clients persisted in calling and complaining, they would disconnect the phones, change their business name and location and start the same scheme all over again.

The indictment charges that FUHRMAN and KING, doing business as “Levy Fitzgerald & Associates” and “Levy Fitzgerald Inc.” from 2001 through 2004, pocketed a total of $1,237,234.42 that they collected on behalf of over 100 clients.

The indictment also charges that from early 2005 through July of 2007, FUHRMAN solicited and defrauded dozens of other collection clients operating as “Harris & Klein,” “Solomon & Bailey Inc.,” “Ross, Hollander & Associates, Inc.,” “Michael Roberts & Associates,” and “Collection Solutions.” He ran these fraudulent agencies from his apartment and P.O. Boxes in the Empire State Building and on Lexington Avenue and stole over $400,000 from numerous businesses.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Special Prosecutions Bureau began investigating after receiving complaints from businesses  that had been defrauded by the defendants.

LIONEL FUHRMAN, 73, and STEVEN KING, 43, were charged with two counts of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, two counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, and one count of Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree. FUHRMAN was charged with an additional two counts of Scheme to Defraud, two counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, seven counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, and two counts of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree. They were arraigned late yesterday in the New York State Supreme Court.

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Siegmund conducted the investigation under the supervision of Thomas Wornom, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau, with assistance from Financial Investigator James McHugh and Michael Vecchio of the District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Bureau, Frank Puma, Chief, and DA Investigator Mark Stewart.

Defendant Information:

LIONEL FUHRMAN, age 73; 215 East 68th Street, New York, NY

STEVEN KING, age 43; 2110 1st Avenue, New York, NY

 

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