A former New York judge was arrested Wednesday and accused of defrauding investors of millions of dollars, including by acting as a lawyer who offered fake investment opportunities in New Jersey real estate.
The former judge, Edward Harold King of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy along with Sam Sprei, a Brooklyn real estate investor who federal prosecutors said orchestrated the scheme with Mr. King.
The two men used Mr. King’s “position as a sitting judge to lend false legitimacy to supposed investment opportunities,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Agents from the Internal Revenue Service arrested the men on Wednesday morning. Mr. King, 72, and Mr. Sprei, 37, appeared in Brooklyn federal court and were released on bond. They declined to comment after their hearings. Mr. King was appointed to State Supreme Court in June 2024, after serving as a judge in New York City Civil Court for a year and a half.
Sitting judges are barred from practicing law. Mr. King resigned in January while under investigation by the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct, which had notified him a month earlier that it was investigating numerous complaints against him, including that he was taking part in a scheme to defraud investors. He denied the allegations at the time.
In November 2024, Mr. Sprei and Mr. King approached two investors with an opportunity to buy property in Freehold, N.J., as part of a bankruptcy sale, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Mr. Sprei told the investors that they could bid on the property, but that they first needed to deposit their funds with a third party, or in escrow, to show “proof of liquidity,” prosecutors said. Their funds would be handled by Mr. King, whom Mr. Sprei described as both a judge and an authorized lawyer who could hold such funds, according to the complaint.
In February 2025, the investors wired $6.5 million to a bank account belonging to Mr. King. In the days after, more $850,000 of the funds were transferred out of the account, and the investors were not notified.
The money, according to federal prosecutors, was promised as “returnable on demand” to the investors, and in April 2025, they asked for their money back. About $1.5 million was returned the next month, prosecutors said.
The case brought by federal prosecutors resembles accusations made by other investors in sprawling civil litigation. Mr. Sprei and Frank R. Seddio, the powerful Democratic power broker who previously served as the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s chair, are facing a series of state and federal lawsuits in which they are accused of defrauding investors.
Mr. Seddio, who was not named in the federal criminal complaint, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lauren Zimmerman, a lawyer who represents some of the investors, called the arrests “an important step in restoring public faith in the integrity of New York’s venerable courts.”
As investors have sought to recoup what they say are wrongfully diverted funds through litigation in state court, Mr. Seddio has filed a number of countersuits, delaying legal proceedings. He faces a hearing next week over what the investors have called frivolous conduct.
Hurubie Meko and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.