By Jennifer Glickel and Nicole Bode
DNAinfo Staff
MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — Federal investigators are looking into a host of new claims by clients of accused Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr who believe they were also swindled by the moneyman to the stars, authorities said Tuesday.
The Security and Exchange Commission has “received information from additional clients who have concerns about their accounts and the possible misappropriation of the money in those accounts,” SEC lawyer Todd Brody said in U.S. District Court.
Brody would not identify the alleged victims or say how many came forward following Starr’s arrest.
Starr was arrested last Thursday on charges he ran a $30 million Ponzi scheme that netted celebrities like actress Uma Thurman and jeweler Jacob Arabov before it came to light last month.
Authorities found Starr hiding in the closet of a $7.5 million Upper East Side apartment that prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office say he bought using his clients’ money. Starr recently took out a $3.5 million mortgage against the apartment in an apparent attempt to cash in even more on the ill-gotten gains, authorities revealed Tuesday.
Starr and his wife, former Scores stripper Diane Passage, were also named in a civil lawsuit brought by the SEC in US District Court, which resulted in an emergency motion last week to freeze all of the couple’s assets.
The couple, who were not present in court Tuesday, are barred from accessing any of the funds under a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein (of no relation to Starr co-defendant, Andrew Stein).
Judge Stein appointed a monitor Tuesday who will oversee all transactions in Starr’s companies — Starr Investment Advisors, Starr & Company and Colcave. The companies will be unable to spend more than $1,000 in any one place without the approval of monitor Aurora Cassirer of Troutman Sanders LLP, the judge said.
Starr has been held in federal custody since his arrest, and was not produced in court Tuesday because of a scheduling issue, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals office said. He is due back in court Wednesday for a motion to replace his criminal defense lawyer, Joshua Klein.
High-powered defense attorneys and brothers Ed Hayes and Steven Hayes turned up to Starr's criminal court appearance Tuesday but would not discuss whether they would be replacing Klein.
