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Miami Daily Business Review
December 14, 2001
Justice denied' Ex-lawyer who owes former clients more than $1 million hasn't been to trialtwo years after indictment
BYLINE: by Susan R. Miller
BODY:
arry "Jim" Farr has good reason not to be fond of lawyers.
An elderly attorney driving a car on Biscayne Boulevard struck him in March 1989 when he was crossing the street. The accident landed Farr, now 67, in the hospital and in a coma for six weeks. He lost part of his skull, is blind in one eye, and has a rod and pins in one leg.
But it's the lawyer Farr hired to sue the negligent driver, Harvey Abramson, whom he'd like to see behind bars. A personal injury attorney in North Miami for more than 30 years, Abramson, now 64, was indicted in October 1999 on more than 30 counts, including grand theft and organized fraud.
He is alleged to have absconded with the insurance money from judgments and settlements he got for clients injured in accidents. In Farr's case, Abramson is alleged to have pumped money into money-losing real estate investments. He resigned from the Florida Bar in 1998.
Farr and his wife, Julie, aren't the only alleged victims among Abramson's former clients who are looking either for repayment or revenge. Dozens of former clients want to know why Abramson, who was indicted two years ago, is no closer to seeing the inside of a jail cell than they are to recovering the hundreds of thousands of dollars he allegedly stole from them.
That Abramson hasn't faced a judge or jury yet also angers Arthur Rice, a partner at Rice Robinson & Schiller in Miami, who forced Abramson into involuntary bankruptcy in 1998 to facilitate payment to these clients from the Florida Bar's client security fund.
"Justice delayed is justice denied, and this is the most extreme example of that I have ever witnessed in my entire life," fumes Rice. "There is no discernible reason why the [Miami-Dade] state attorney's office can't bring this admitted thief to trial."
Abramson has never denied taking the money, says his attorney, Ben Kuehne, a partner at Sale & Kuehne in Miami. He "is now doing everything he can to rectify those mistakes," Kuehne contends.
Let the Bar pay
Abramson first came to Rice's attention through Rice's role as a member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors. Rice was asked to review numerous claims made by Abramson's former clients to the client security fund, which is designed to help people recover money misappropriated by their lawyers.
One after another, the former clients laid out their stories and the reasons they believed the fund should provide them with financial relief for Abramson's alleged scams.
Most said Abramson himself had sent them letters telling them to contact the fund to recover their money. But because they had not exhausted all their civil remedies, the fund refused to pay. So Rice stepped in on a pro bono basis and filed involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against Abramson.
Rice was able to show that Abramson's former clients had done everything they could to force him to make restitution, a prerequisite to getting reimbursed by the client security fund.
Those efforts have resulted in the board of governors approving the release of nearly $490,000 so far to Abramson's former clients. Of that amount, about $153,000 has been disbursed. But the fund has a $50,000 per person limitation, and any payment is contingent on how much money is available in the fund.
As a result, the Farrs, who say they are owed about $500,000, will never get what's due them. That's why they are so eager to see Abramson behind bars. "I would like to see him spend his days on the eighth floor of Jackson Memorial, where intensive care patients are treated, and then spend his nights in jail," says Julie Farr, whose husband spent months in intensive care after his accident.
But Kuehne argues that his client is worth more to his former clients out of jail than in. Abramson has been able to postpone his trial date because he's trying to pay restitution, Kuehne explains.
Kuehne says he's been working with Miami-Dade assistant state attorney Julian Mack to collect as much money as he can from Abramson to repay his alleged victims. The problem is that Abramson, who has been working at a friend's restaurant supply company, doesn't have much money to begin with.
Kuehne claims that part of Abramson's income is going into an escrow account with the intent of distributing it to those from whom he's alleged to have stolen money. So far, Kuehne says he's collected about $18,000, a small fraction of what he owes his former clients.
Still, Kuehne is cautiously optimistic. "The time has been well spent attempting to raise restitution money for the former clients," he says. "A number of opportunities were in place to raise the money. Thus far we have not succeeded."
Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the state attorney's office, confirms that his office has had discussions with Kuehne and Abramson about restitution, but adds that prosecutors will be seeking jail time.
Why has the case been sitting around for so long without going to trial? "Like any complicated economic crime, it's not one, two three, it's closed," says Griffith, who notes that a trial has been set for March 25. "When you start throwing in bankruptcy, it makes it more convoluted than we would like it to be."
Lawyer and investment broker
Following Jim Farr's accident, the Farrs received a $1.1 million settlement in 1989, part of which went to pay Jim Farr's medical and legal bills. Abramson then offered to invest the rest for them.
Abramson promised a 17 percent return, recalls Julie Farr. At first they were receiving $5,000 a month from the lawyer. About three years after the checks started coming, they began to bounce. Shortly thereafter, their calls and letters to Abramson went unanswered.
The Farrs aren't sure where their money was invested. They say they never received anything in writing. But they say the checks came from a company called Williamsburg Ltd. and were signed by Abramson.
According to court records and depositions, Abramson had an investment interest in Williamsburg, an adult congregate living facility on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, which was converted from a Holiday Inn.
Julie Farr says Abramson never told her directly that's where the money went, but she does recall him taking her and her husband on a tour of the facility. In 1990, CenTrust Bank filed foreclosure proceedings against the property in federal court.
Rice says that based on Abramson's limited record keeping, it appeared that Abramson poured a lot of money - "much of which was not his," Rice says - into Williamsburg and Villa Biscaya, another group living facility in Miami in which he had an investment.
Rice says that if Abramson did invest the Farrs' money in the two group living facilities, he should have given them an ownership interest. To do otherwise was "not consistent with a lawyer investing a client's funds," he says. To make matters worse, Rice notes, Abramson later transferred his interest in Williamsburg to his wife, Irene.
Abramson attributed at least part of his problems to bad investments, which left him virtually broke even though he had received large loans from several members of his family and from a business associate. In depositions taken during bankruptcy proceedings Abramson noted that he had made investments in the group living facility and numerous other real estate deals.
He also admitted to transferring many of the properties to his wife in exchange for a $600,000 to $700,000 loan. Rice unsuccessfully sued Irene Abramson in bankruptcy court to set aside the transfer of the property.
Abramson also said his parents loaned him another $1 million, and his two sons each loaned him between $125,000 and $150,000.
Court records show that it was Dr. Gary Lustgarten who got Abramson involved in the group living facility business. In April 1998, Lustgarten filed suit against Abramson in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, alleging he failed to make good on payments for numerous loans between 1989 and 1997 totaling more than $730,000, some of which were used to continue funding the floundering group homes.
Abramson filed a countersuit claiming that Lustgarten convinced him that investing in the group living facility would be "an excellent, profitable business" and that Lustgarten continually assured him that it would be a "great financial success." His claim against Lustgarten seeks $3.5 million. However, both claims were stayed pending the outcome of Abramson's bankruptcy case.
Despite all the loans, court records show that in addition to the more than $1 million Abramson allegedly owed his former clients, he owed close to $100,000 in credit card debt. He reported owning no property other than $750 worth of clothing.
Kuehne says his client has faced no allegations of wrongdoing regarding his investments in Williamsburg, nor has he admitted any wrongdoing in that venture.
"Mr. Abramson was, for a long, long time, a very good practitioner who did good work for his clients," Kuehne says. "As a result of some personal problems, he made some serious mistakes, admitted to them and is now doing everything he can to rectify those mistakes."
But Rice scoffs at the former attorney's supposed efforts to repay his clients. "Unless he hits the lottery, he's not going to make restitution," Rice says. "Frankly, I am sick of the excuses."
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