Just caught up with this news: Stamford real estate attorney Burt Hoffman, crook, committed suicide on June 8, 2018

I’ve written of Hoffman over the years, citing him as one of the worst of the worst criminals controlling the foreclosure process during the post-crash era, but it took the state a long time to catch up with him. Finally, in 2016, he was arrested for larceny and theft and resigned from the bar in lieu of being disbarred. His death followed.

A reader has just sent me a bit of what’s been going on since Hoffman’s death; suits by defrauded clients and lenders, and a suit against a limited partnership called Mimarjo LLC which, interestingly could be considered to be comprised of Hoffman’s three sons, at least one of whom is still practicing law in Stamford: Mi (Mitch) mar (Marc) jo (Jon).

My problem with dealing with Hoffman and his firm was that you couldn’t complete a short-sale or foreclosure: they managed to derail the process and sell the property to their own clients in return, it was rumored, for a substantial kickback. It came to the point that if a deal had Hoffman on one side of it, I’d just bail, knowing that any effort i expended would be wasted time.

A bit more research on the man reveals that, beside his fraudulent loan activities, Hoffman was accused of stealing from elderly clients, stripping them of their savings. Not a good person, and I wonder how he managed to continue all these years when so many of us in the real estate field knew (at least part of) what he was up to.