A former Kings County Supreme Court justice was arrested Wednesday in Brooklyn on federal charges that accuse him and a local real estate investor of fleecing investors through sham property deals. Prosecutors say the pair leaned on the judge’s title to make their pitches sound legitimate, persuading people to wire over millions of dollars that mostly never came back.
Arrests unsealed in Brooklyn federal court
Federal agents took 72-year-old Edward Harold King and 37-year-old real estate investor Sam Sprei into custody after a criminal complaint was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court, according to The New York Times. The Times reports that both men were charged in a wire-fraud conspiracy and were scheduled to make initial appearances before a magistrate judge later that afternoon.
What prosecutors allege
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the complaint says Sprei told investors to deposit funds as "proof of liquidity" and directed them to wire $6.5 million into a bank account in King’s name under written escrow agreements. The release says millions of dollars were then withdrawn or moved into a bank account in Sprei’s name, and that King offered false explanations when investors tried to get their money back; only about $1.5 million was ultimately returned. "As alleged, 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," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said in the statement.
Resignation and watchdog probe
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct disclosed that King resigned effective Dec. 31, 2025, and agreed never to seek judicial office again while under investigation for allegedly acting as an escrow agent and engaging in law-related business as a sitting judge. The Commission's public stipulation, released in late January, outlined allegations that King maintained attorney escrow accounts and accepted escrow funds while serving full time on the bench.
Ties to long-running civil disputes
The federal complaint intersects with a series of civil suits and local reporting that have tracked missing escrow money and disputed transfers tied to Sprei and others, including litigation over roughly $2 million that has wound through Brooklyn courts, according to reporting by Hell Gate NYC. Those state and federal filings describe a recurring pattern of escrow payments that plaintiffs say were not returned.
What’s next
The government’s Public Integrity Section is handling the prosecution, and the complaint is docketed as 26-MJ-91 in the Eastern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The charge in the complaint is an allegation, and if convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison; prosecutors emphasized that the case will be decided in court.
Initial appearances were set for the defendants in Brooklyn federal court, where public filings tied to the complaint are expected to lay out the government’s evidence in greater detail. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty.
