A bankruptcy judge in Manhattan has again ordered real estate attorney Mitchell Kossoff, who is under criminal investigation amid accusations of mishandling client funds, to cooperate with the chapter 7 trustee overseeing the liquidation of his law firm, Reuters reported. Chief Bankruptcy Judge David Jones held that Kossoff cannot invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because he is turning over corporate documents from his shuttered firm, Kossoff PLLC, not personal records. Chief Judge Jones rejected the argument made by Kossoff's criminal defense attorney, Walter Mack of Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack, that Kossoff and his law firm are indistinguishable. "Those contentions fail to overcome the collective entity doctrine," Chief Judge Jones said. He ordered Kossoff to turn over the records requested by Al Togut, a bankruptcy attorney overseeing the estate of Kossoff PLLC as chapter 7 trustee. Togut praised Chief Judge Jones' ruling in an email, saying that it "puts to rest Mr. Kossoff’s claim that his Fifth Amendment privilege relieves him of the obligation to cooperate with the trustee." Togut said he expects Kossoff to appear at a meeting of his law firm's creditors, where Togut, as the trustee, will examine him. Chief Judge Jones' ruling comes one month after he designated Kossoff as the person responsible for his real estate law firm, which was forced into bankruptcy by a group of creditors who have claimed that the firm misappropriated more than $8 million in escrow funds.
