MD lawyer indicted, forced to stop practicing law amid theft allegations

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A Montgomery County lawyer facing an escalating attorney grievance case was arrested this week on charges that she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients and other attorneys.

Sari K. Kurland, 62, was indicted in Montgomery County Circuit Court on felony theft charges and misdemeanors including misuse of trust money and securities fraud. She is free on $250,000 unsecured bond after being arrested on Tuesday, court records show.

The charges are linked to an ongoing attorney grievance case against Kurland, who was ordered to stop practicing law following an emergency petition from Maryland Bar Counsel in January.

Kurland was also found in contempt this week after she continued practicing law and refused to cooperate with a conservator named to handle her client matters, according to a court order entered Tuesday.

Kurland has until Monday to purge her contempt by informing her clients she is no longer practicing law, providing the conservator access to bank accounts associated with her law practice, and closing the Kurland Law Group website. The site did not appear to be functional Friday.

Kurland will be required to stay at the Montgomery County Circuit Court every business day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. if she does not purge her contempt, the court order shows. Court records on Friday did not show whether Kurland had successfully purged her contempt.

Kurland did not respond to requests for comment Friday. She has denied the allegations brought by bar counsel in court documents.

Her lawyer in the criminal case, Carlos Salvado, and her lawyer in the attorney grievance case, David G. Mulquin, also did not respond to requests for comment.

A petition for disciplinary action against Kurland alleges she improperly kept money from a number of clients beginning in 2020. In December of that year, according to the petition, Kurland received and deposited a check for over $40,000 in bankruptcy foreclosure surplus proceeds that was intended for a client.

For nearly a year, Kurland told her client she had not received the money. When her client independently called the Montgomery County Circuit Court and learned Kurland had cashed the check, Kurland responded, “Wow — that is crazy — I need to consult counsel to determine how to respond,” according to the petition.

Kurland then tried to force the client to sign a confidentiality and nondisparagement agreement in order to receive the funds. The client refused, and Kurland provided some of the money in small increments over the next year, but did not send the full amount owed.

Another complaint came after Kurland accepted $250,000 from New York attorney Gregory Kuczinski in August 2023. Kurland was supposed to hold the money for just 24 hours and then release it upon request. Kuczinski, according to the petition, was helping clients purchase Bitcoin, a digital currency.

The day after Kurland received the $250,000, she sent $125,000 of those funds to “an entity in Hong Kong,” the petition alleges. She also conducted other transactions with the funds until there was less than $1,000 left in her trust account.

She sent $25,000 of the money to Jon M. Picus, another attorney from whom she had misappropriated funds, according to the petition.

Picus also filed a complaint against Kurland after she promised to hold $100,000 of his money in her trust account for four days and then failed to return it. The petition claims that Kurland owed Picus $60,000 from another business transaction and promised to repay him if he sent the $100,000. That money was supposed to demonstrate to a third party that Kurland had enough money to “engage in a lucrative sale of petroleum” that would allow her to pay Picus back all of the money she owed.

Kurland did not pay Picus back, the petition alleges, but sent him $25,000 one day after Kuczinsky deposited the $250,000 that Kurland was supposed to hold in escrow.

Kurland was also hired by the owner of a construction company to handle his bankruptcy case, according to the petition. Instead of helping him file for bankruptcy, though, Kurland advised that the company owner, Brian Matthews, should instead try to negotiate settlements with former construction clients to whom he owed money.

Matthews wired Kurland $142,000 toward the settlements, and Kurland told him she had reached settlements with each of his former clients, but she never paid most of them, according to the petition.

Finally, Kurland also represented the owner of a foreclosed home and attempted to buy back the home from a man who had purchased it, Sam Asgari. When Asgari asked for proof that Kurland’s client could pay for the house, Kurland responded that she and her client were “involved in an ‘oil deal’ with companies in Belgium, Netherlands and Dubai” that would provide enough money for the purchase.

Asgari declined the deal, but Kurland contacted him again to ask for a loan that would allow her to engage in a “gold deal” that would generate enough money to buy the house back, according to the petition. She borrowed $16,800 that she has not returned, the petition claims.

Asgari put the house up for sale in the summer of 2023 and received two offers, one of which was about $100,000 higher than the other. Asgari accepted the higher offer, but then learned through the sale paperwork that the buyer was Kurland’s client. Kurland also told Asgari he needed to void a $30,000 promissory note she had agreed to previously and that he would be paid back for the $16,800 still owed if he agreed to the sale. Asgari voided the sale.

Kurland was also sanctioned in bankruptcy court in 2022 for an ethics violation after a judge concluded she had made false representations in court, according to the petition.

The Maryland Supreme Court has not acted on bar counsel’s petition for disciplinary action against Kurland. Her criminal case is also pending.