Brooklyn resident Pamela Brown has struggled to recover $53,000 she placed in escrow with attorney Daphna Zekaria, who later admitted to stealing nearly $400,000 from clients and was disbarred. Brown hired Zekaria in 2017 for a rent dispute involving her Park Slope landlord, according to New York Focus. Despite Zekaria’s guilty plea and disbarment, Brown has not been able to retrieve her lost funds.
Brown said that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has not responded to her repeated complaints. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Suffolk County confirmed that the money was missing from Zekaria’s accounts by 2020. The lack of action from Bragg’s office has also prevented Brown from seeking reimbursement through the state-run Lawyer’s Fund for Client Protection, which denied her claim this year because there was no investigation by the DA.
So far, only two of Zekaria’s former clients have received compensation from the Fund, even though a court-appointed receiver reported that about 30 people may have been affected. The receiver told Brown last year, “The silence from the Manhattan DA continues to be deafening.”
After being questioned by New York Focus, Bragg’s office said it would “re-review” Brown’s complaint and contact the Fund. A spokesperson stated that the office takes “financial fraud in Manhattan, especially misconduct by attorneys, very seriously.”
Eric Seiff, chair of the Lawyer’s Fund for Client Protection, acknowledged that claims often stall without findings from prosecutors. He explained regarding Brown’s case: “If we had any kind of document to confirm that the money was received in Zekaria’s escrow account, it would make it a different story.”
Zekaria admitted to stealing nearly $400,000 from three other clients by taking escrow funds without providing legal services but charging significant fees. She faces a six-year prison sentence if she does not pay restitution by May.
