By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A real estate tycoon facing dozens of charges, including grand larceny, has declined a plea agreement offered by prosecutors.
Adam Hochfelder, the 38-year-old former CEO of Max Capital Management Corporation, is accused stealing more than $2 million from friends and family.
He also allegedly faked financial documents to refinance the mortgage on his Park Avenue co-op, taking out $10 million in personal loans from Bank of America and North Fork Bank and allegedly bilked $17 million from friends and family.
During an appearance at Manhattan Supreme Court Friday, Hochfelder told the court he wasn't interested in a plea.
Instead, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo is filing a motion to dismiss the case. The lawyer claims that Hochfelder returned about $15 million prior to his indictment, but that the grand jury was never made aware of that fact.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment on the case and the evidence presented to the grand jury.
The judge presiding over the case made it clear that he wanted a plea deal. "From my point of view it would be preferential if there is an agreement," said Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus.
Agnifilo said cocaine contributed to Hochfelder's financial downfall, but that his client received strict inpatient rehab during in the summer of 2008 and has been clean since.
The need for continuing outpatient treatment and sinus surgery, results of his cocaine abuse, were part of Hochfelder's case for release at his bail hearing, the New York Post reported.
Hochfelder was credited in a December 2003 New York Observer profile with acquiring valuable commercial real estate in his late 20s to early 30s including the old Condé Nast building and 450 W. 33rd Street, where the Daily News and the Associated Press are based.
