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FLORIDA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Boca Raton attorney disbarred following wire fraud guilty plea

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TALLAHASSEE — Longtime Boca Raton attorney Jeffrey Greenfield Klein has been voluntarily disbarred following a March 14 Florida Supreme Court order after his guilty plea last year to wire fraud, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.

"In 2018 Klein pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to three years' probation with the first six months home detention and restitution of $134,261.53," the state bar said in its March 29 announcement of the discipline and the Supreme Court's order.

In its two-page order of disciplinary revocation, tantamount to disbarment, the state Supreme Court granted Klein's petition for disciplinary revocation with leave to seek readmission after five years. Klein already was suspended, which meant his disbarment was effective immediately.

The court also ordered Klein to pay $1,250 in costs.

Florida court orders are not final until time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion does not alter the effective date of Klein's suspension.

Attorneys disbarred in Florida generally cannot reapply for admission for five years and must pass an extensive process that includes a rigorous background check and retaking the bar exam.

Klein was admitted to the bar in Florida on Nov. 21, 1983, according to his profile at the state bar website. Klein had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to his petition.

Klein was one 12 indicted by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, New York, in May 2012 on allegations they participated in what the U.S. Department of Justice at the time called "a large scale, international stock boiler room scheme." Klein, then 57, was charged with charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and with having committee wire fraud.

About 250 investors allegedly lost more than $2.9 million to the defendants "and a number of other conspirators" as part of the scheme in which Klein served as escrow agent for fraudulent stock transactions, said a DOJ news release issued in September 2018.

That month, Klein, by then 63, was one of five defendants to enter guilty pleas in the case. Klein was sentenced in January.

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