Miami and Coral Gables attorneys, a Realtor and $19,000 in ‘misappropriated’ funds
A Miami attorney misappropriated $19,000 that belonged to a Coral Gables attorney, the Florida Bar says, and the money wound up being paid to a company owned by a former client of the attorney..
The Bar’s investigation of Arthur Morburger says the money that went to licensed Realtor Gisselle Manzzo’s GM Investment Property & Solutions was part of fees that should’ve gone to Coral Gables attorney Carl Palomino. Palomino represented the estate of a deceased man in a civil lawsuit against Morburger’s client, tobacco giant Phillip Morris.
“Let me state unequivocally, that Mr. Morburger is cunning, deceptive and dishonest,” Palomino wrote to the Florida Bar. “I consider Mr. Morburger to be a thief, and I believe he poses a grave threat to the general public, as highlighted by the very facts and circumstances of this case.”
The state Supreme Court agreed enough to put Morburger, a Harvard Law graduate who was admitted to the Bar in 1973, on an emergency suspension that starts Friday.
The message on Morburger’s Florida Bar registered phone number said it has been changed and “the new number is unknown.” A Miami Herald reporter reached Manzzo by phone Monday morning.
“I’m not going to respond to any of this,” Manzzo said. “There’s nothing here for me to comment on.”
Other people’s money
According to the Bar’s petition, which includes letters from Morburger, Palomino and affidavits from Florida Bar auditors and investigators, these are the facts:
After winning a Miami-Dade County civil suit against Philip Morris, Palomino was awarded $37,030 in attorney’s fees in August 2019. Morburger was ordered to hold that amount in his trust account. On Feb. 4 of this year, after Philip Morris’ appeals were finished, Morburger was ordered to send Palomino the money.
The check Morburger sent on Feb. 9, No. 454, bounced when Palomino went to cash it.
The problem seemed to be check No. 464, dated Feb. 7, to GM Investment Property & Solutions for $6,500.
In a March 1 letter to the Bar, self-reporting the bounced check to Palomino, Morburger said that check was stolen, “had been made payable to some “GM” entity for $6,500 and that balance was withdrawn from my account before my $37,030.00 check was submitted.”
Morburger said he reported the check as stolen and Bank of America credited $5,000 back to his account. A Florida Bar auditor said that credit put Morburger’s trust account balance at $35,530.54.
The Bar auditor also found that, in addition to No. 464, dated Feb. 7, there were two checks that weren’t paid by the bank: check No. 455, dated Feb. 11, to another individual for $2,000 and No. 456 to GM Investment, dated Feb. 12, for $5,500.
At this point, Palomino’s letter to the Bar said, “Mr. Morburger could have very easily promptly gotten me a certified or cashier’s check for whatever portion of my money he still had in his trust account, upon first learning that supposedly there was an issue with one or more “unauthorized” checks issued against said trust account. He could have just as easily also wired me any such money.”
Also, Palomino pointed out that he received the check by courier on Feb. 9 and has an affidavit from the courier saying Morburger wrote the check Feb. 9, but dated it Feb. 5. Palomino said it seemed Morburger was trying to cover himself and his claim to the Bar that he wanted to verify his balance before issuing the check was contradicted by the evidence.
“Had he really checked with his bank on Feb. 9, before he wrote that “worthless check”, he would have known he did not have the funds to cover that “worthless check,” Palomino wrote.
Checks and balances
In March, the Bar auditor found, check No. 457 to GM Investment for $6,000 and No. 458 for $6,500, both of which were paid. On March 31, Morburger sent Palomino check No. 461 for $35,530 of the $37,030. That’s the amount that had been in his trust account during the investigation of the first check to GM Investment.
Check No. 461 bounced. With the next two checks to GM Investment, the trust account balance was down to $23,030.
In a March 31 deposition, the Bar auditor wrote, Morburger insisted he had nothing to do with GM Investment and “no idea who they are.”
Check No. 460 to GM Investment, for $5,000, was paid in April.
That took the trust account balance down to $18,030.
On April 7, Morburger and Palomino went to a Bank of America branch and Morburger wire transferred the $18,030 to Palomino. That left $19,000 of Palomino’s money “misappropriated,” the Bar auditor wrote.
Who do you know?
In a May 3 letter to the Bar, Morburger insisted the checks to GM Investments were improperly cashed by Bank of America over his notice and, “I have no knowledge of that payee. All of those checks appear to have the same [longhand] signature — not decipherable and not mine.”
But when Bank of America answered a Bar subpoena for documents related to the trust account, there was nothing about fraudulent checks or unauthorized withdrawals from Morburger. Bank of America stated it couldn’t find any despite Morburger’s claim that he cried foul to Bank of America after the first check to GM Investment.
And the Bar auditor checked state records and found GM Investment, started in 2019 by Gisselle Manzzo. Manzzo, who is not known to face any sanctions, remains GM Investment’s president and registered agent.
Then, the auditor checked court records and found a Florida Third District Court of Appeal case, Manzzo vs. Deutsche Bank. Manzzo’s attorney throughout the appeal, from March 29, 2018 to Feb. 13, 2019: Arthur Morburger.
Bar investigator Thomas Reilly’s affidavit said Manzzo told him “that since Arthur Morburger had told her not to speak with me, she would not be doing so and not to ‘bother’ her again.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 10:12 AM.
