On Wednesday, federal agents arrested disgraced former Brooklyn State Supreme Court Justice Edward Harold King and Brooklyn businessman Yechiel "Sam" Sprei on criminal wire fraud charges stemming from what the feds describe as "multiple schemes to defraud real estate investors." This is a major development related to alleged multimillion dollar scams that Hell Gate has been following closely and which could ensnare the alleged serial fraudster Sprei, Brooklyn judges, and the local Democratic Party officials who play a hand in appointing them.
Sprei and King are going to be arraigned in federal court on Thursday afternoon (we'll be there), but on Tuesday, one day before the indictment, Sprei's voice memos were being played in Brooklyn State Supreme Court, introduced as evidence in a civil case brought by an entirely different set of investors from the ones referred to in the federal complaint, but who also claim that Sprei took their money.
The recordings appear to reveal Sprei orchestrating the recusal of multiple Brooklyn judges, boasting of contacts inside the courthouse and inside knowledge of court operations, and directing multiple lawyers—including Brooklyn Democratic Party powerbroker Frank Seddio—to file false documents in what seems an evident effort to disguise the ultimate location of the $2 million that international investors contemplating a partnership with Sprei had placed in an escrow account at Sprei's request.