Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the arrest and indictment of a former real estate executive at Max Capital Management Corporation for stealing more than $17 million from a panoply of banks and individuals.

The defendant, ADAM HOCHFELDER, 37, has been indicted on six counts of Grand Larceny in the First Degree, a class B Felony, which is punishable by up to 25 years in prison; two counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison; 24 counts of Forgery in the Second Degree, a class D Felony, which is punishable by up to 7 years in prison; 24 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, one count each of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, all class E Felonies, punishable by up to four years in prison.  The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between October 2002 and February 2008.

HOCHFELDER worked as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Max Capital Management Corporation, which he co-founded in 1996 with Richard Kalikow, until the end of 2004. In 2002, HOCHFELDER purchased Kalikow’s share of the business, and entered into a partnership with Anthony Westreich. Under the new partnership, Max Capital was a privately held commercial landlord and real estate firm in New York City. In 2004, the partnership between HOCHFELDER and Westreich dissolved.

The investigation leading to today’s events revealed that from October 2002 to March 2007, HOCHFELDER took on a series of personal loans from business partners, family, friends, and banks totaling over $17 million by misrepresenting the value of his personal and professional holdings.  In January 2003, HOCHFELDER applied for and was granted a $5 million dollar personal loan from North Fork Bank. In April 2003, he obtained an additional $5 million personal loan from Bank of America. Unknown to both banks, HOCHFELDER provided them with forged documents reflecting false information regarding his liquidity and assets. In these documents HOCHFELDER inflated some, and entirely created other, equity interests in property he never owned or in which he had little to no interest at all. He also repeatedly forged the signature of his business partner, Anthony Westreich, claiming that Max Capital and its partners agreed to allow the business’s income stream to be used as collateral for the loans. 

The investigation further revealed that HOCHFELDER stole over $2 million from friends and family. In early 2004, HOCHFELDER asked a childhood friend for a $600,000 loan and his uncle for a $700,000 loan and promised his apartment at 975 Park Avenue as collateral.  However, at the time they lent him the money, HOCHFELDER’S apartment was already over encumbered by preexisting loans totaling well in excess of $4 million, which was the apartment’s appraised value at the time.  HOCHFELDER misrepresented the number of liens that existed on the apartment to all of his lenders and even filed a false Uniform Commercial Code termination with the County Clerk in order to hide one of the many liens from his other lenders. 

In September 2003, HOCHFELDER lured a family member into investing $1.3 million by creating a fictitious business venture, which purported to buy foreclosed mortgages of Harlem and Brooklyn brownstones that the business would renovate and sell at a profit.  However, after receiving the money, HOCHFELDER never purchased any brownstones and instead used the stolen funds to pay capital calls at Max Capital and his own personal expenses.

HOCHFELDER will be arraigned later in New York State Supreme Court.

Assistant District Attorney Tanya Apparicio, who is assigned to the District Attorney’s Frauds Bureau, presented the case to the grand jury, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Michael Kitsis, Deputy Bureau Chief Micki Shulman and Deputy Bureau Chief Jeannette Molina. The investigation was headed by Senior Rackets Investigator Patrick McKenna, under the supervision of Investigation Bureau Chief Joseph Pennisi and Deputy Chief Terence Mulderrig.  Financial Investigator Jay Liang led the financial aspects of the investigation, under the supervision of Frank Puma, Chief of the Financial Crimes Bureau. 

Defendant Information

ADAM HOCHFELDER, 04/04/1971
217 East 96th Street
New York, New York

###