The current locale of former Monsey lawyer Mendel Zilberberg puts a premium on legal savvy, yet he may not practice his profession.
A panel of judges of the state Second Appellate Division disbarred Zilberberg last month, retroactive to July 11, 2023 when a federal jury in Manhattan found him guilty of bank fraud, conspiracy and embezzlement.
For Zilberberg, 66, an inmate at the federal prison in Otisville, Orange County, jailhouse lawyering, theoretically, could increase his status or result in creative emoluments. But disbarment compels him to desist and refrain from practicing law in any form, giving a legal opinion or advice to anyone, or holding himself out in any way as an attorney.
Though the disbarment edict was issued a year-and-a-half after he was convicted, the decision was a fait accompli. Under New York’s judiciary law, an attorney is automatically disbarred and ceases to be an attorney upon conviction of a felony.
In this case, the appellate judges had to decide whether the federal crimes were essentially similar to New York criminal offenses. The court affirmed that misapplication of bank funds under federal law is similar to a New York law that prohibits bankers from misapplying funds.
As a director of Park Avenue Bank in Manhattan in 2009, Zilberberg helped a client of his Brooklyn law firm borrow $1.4 million to invest in a home health care business.
The client was ineligible for a loan because he had a criminal record, so a fake borrower was used to apply for the loan.
Zilberberg expedited the loan application and made sure it was not closely scrutinized, according to court records, and when the loan was approved he pocketed $506,000.
Park Bank was already on the verge of failure when the scheme was implemented, and in 2010 banking regulators shut it down.
The fake borrower defaulted on the loan, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the bank that acquired Park Bank’s assets lost $1.1 million.
Zilberberg was indicted in 2019.
He was sentenced last March to two-and-a-half months in prison. He is scheduled for release in July 2026.
