The Brooklyn DA’s office is probing ex-DA Charles Hynes — already under investigation by state and federal authorities — over his use of asset forfeiture money to pay restitution to victims of a real estate scam, including the late Judge John Phillips, The Post has learned.
“They said they were investigating the check and where the check came from and what the amount should or should not have been,” said Phillips’ nephew, the Rev. Samuel Boykin, who is the executor of his uncle’s estate.
“They’re going to find out how much all 11 people were supposed to actually receive.”
Hynes’ office sent Boykin a check marked “ASSET FORFEITURE” for $24,493.06 on July 8, 2013 as restitution for crimes committed by Long Island housewife Maria Albertina — who pleaded guilty to grand larceny in 2006 — bilking Judge Phillips and others out of their homes.
Boykin and his lawyer characterized the check as “hush money” meant to quiet them down during Hynes’ campaign against DA Ken Thompson and said they should have been paid as soon as Albertina pleaded guilty.
“What did they do with the money for all those years? It should have been in an escrow account on behalf of the victims,” said Boykin’s lawyer Dennis Kelly.
“What I think happened is that Hynes improperly co-mingled restitution and asset forfeiture funds in this one slush fund.”
Boykin said prosecutors questioned him last week about the restitution check and if he knew what DA account it came from. They also asked him to send them a copy of the check and the letter that accompanied it.
Court papers show a total of $263,000 was divvied up among 11 of Albertina’s victims in June 2013.
But Boykin say there should have been a lot more asset forfeiture money seized from Albertina – who cleared $2 million on her scams and bought a $600,000 Long Island home, a $200,000 powerboat and a $50,000 SUV, according to Hynes’ own estimate in 2004.
“The estate of John L. Phillips received pennies on the dollar and that was a far cry from what we should have received,” Boykin said.
“Maria Albertina had far more personal assets and it doesn’t seem like that money reached the victims.”
The eccentric Phillips — also known as “The Kung-Fu Judge” because of his martial arts prowess — became a campaign issue with Thompson bashing Hynes for not investigating how the judge’s accounts were looted by public administrators after he was declared incompetent in 2001.
“I have no comment about an inquiry that you tell me DA Ken Thompson is conducting,” said Hynes lawyer Robert Hill Schwartz on Tuesday.
Reps for DA Thompson also declined comment, as did a spokesman for state Attorney General Schneiderman, who is investigating Hynes’ use of forfeiture and other funds to pay for political consultants.