Mitch Kossoff will make his case for early release from prison later this month.
Kossoff, who was sentenced to a maximum term of 13.5 years in 2022 for stealing his clients’ money, has a parole hearing scheduled for the week of September 29.
The 71-year-old is seeking early release under the New York state prison system’s merit time program.
“Merit time can be granted to incarcerated individuals serving sentences for certain non-violent crimes who have exhibited an acceptable disciplinary history and have achieved significant programmatic benchmarks,” said a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections.
The disgraced attorney has served a little more than three years of his sentence, which carries a minimum term of 4.5 years. The earliest he will be eligible for parole release is November 2026.
Kossoff did not respond to a request for an interview earlier this year, and the criminal defense attorney in his case did not respond to a request for comment.
He’s serving his time at the Groveland Correctional Facility in Soneya, about an hour and a half east of Buffalo. The parole board will have two weeks following the hearing to render a decision.
Kossoff had been a high-powered attorney representing some of the city’s biggest residential landlords. As the head of his firm, Kossoff PLLC, he wielded absolute control over his clients’ escrow funds — a system that in most law firms has more checks and balances.
It turned out that Kossoff was using his clients’ money to pay for things like his credit card bill and apartment. He also had a struggling family business he was trying to keep afloat.
Then one day in the spring of 2021, Kossoff went AWOL after several clients demanded their escrow money back, and attorneys at his company were left scrambling for answers.
He eventually pleaded guilty to four charges of theft and fraud, admitting that he stole nearly $15 million.
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