Recently-resigned Brooklyn judge arrested for scamming $4.3 M from real estate investors

"Edward Harold King was taken into custody along with real estate investor Sam Sprei and charged with wire fraud conspiracy for allegedly swiping money from an escrow account they set up on a real estate deal in Freehold, N.J. King, an attorney, was a Supreme Court judge from June 2024 to December 2025, when he agreed to resign from office as federal investigators intensified their probe into the fraud complaint for which he was arrested for Wednesday. Both King and Sprei are expected to be arraigned on the charges in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday afternoon."

""The defendants stole millions of dollars from investors by cynically leveraging King's position as a sitting judge to lend false legitimacy to supposed investment opportunities," Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said in a statement. "Today's arrests demonstrate that this Office will hold accountable those who exploit victims for their own financial gain." While King was a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge, both he and Sprei, who also goes by "Yechiel Sprei," "Shimon Sprei," and "Eli Shapiro," hatched a plan to bilk real estate investors, federal investigators said in their criminal complaint against the pair."

"Sprei reeled two real estate investors into purchasing a multi-million property in Freehold he claimed was going into bankruptcy and would be going up for auction. But before they could purchase the property, Sprei demanded that they showed "proof of liquidity" by depositing funds into an escrow account set up by King. The investors wired $6.5 million into the escrow account on Feb. 26, 2025, and were told King wouldn't be able to move the money into any other accounts. They were also told they could get the money back at any time."

Edward Harold King, a recently resigned Brooklyn Supreme Court judge, was arrested with real estate investor Sam Sprei in connection with an alleged real estate fraud. Federal authorities said the pair set up an escrow account for a Freehold, New Jersey property deal and used it to obtain investor funds. Investors wired $6.5 million into the escrow account after being told the money could not be moved to other accounts and could be returned at any time. Investigators alleged that King leveraged his role as a sitting judge to provide false legitimacy to the investment opportunity. Both King and Sprei were charged with wire fraud conspiracy and were expected to be arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court.

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