One of New York’s top bankruptcy attorneys Jonathan Pasternak has received a three-year suspension from practicing law in New York’s Southern District Court.
Pasternak, of the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, was suspended by the U.S. District Court of New York’s Southern District, related to receiving $260,000 in undisclosed payments from controversial real estate investor Sam Sprei during a bankruptcy case.
Pasternak admitted to using most of the proceeds from Sprei to purchase a house.
Pasternak is a go-to bankruptcy attorney for mid-market dealmakers. His past clients included entities tied to Yitzhak Tessler, Jeff Simpson of Arch Companies and Steven Ostad.
Pasternak was working for the law firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr at the time of the incidents leading to his suspension. He joined Davidoff Hutcher & Citron in 2019.
Despite the suspension, Pasternak remains employed at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron and is allowed to practice in other courts.
“All of the events occurred well before he was employed with us,” said Larry Hutcher, a founding partner of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. “There has been no question about his integrity with us.”
Hutcher noted that Pasternak is a “good lawyer” who “made one mistake” in a multi-decade career.
At the center of Pasternak’s troubles is a contentious bankruptcy of a medical office property at 261 East 78th Street, according to an opinion issued by a grievances committee for New York’s Southern District.
The owner of the property, Lee Moncho, hired Pasternak as his attorney to put the property into bankruptcy after it faced foreclosure from its lender MB Financial.
During that process, Pasternak suggested to Moncho that he reach out to Sprei about serving as the funder of the bankruptcy plan. By early 2014, Moncho’s bankruptcy plan was approved by the court. The property was sold to a company majority owned by Sprei.
But Pasternak never disclosed to his client or the court about his other deals with Sprei.
Sprei had previously offered to pay Pasternak a finder’s fee for bankruptcy deals. In the case of the 261 East 78th Street bankruptcy, Sprei would also pay Pasternak after reaching certain milestones in the bankruptcy process. This included the court’s approval of the bankruptcy plan.
Between September 2013 and February 2014, Sprei sent over four payments to Pasternak totaling $260,000.
Sprei made his largest payment when the bankruptcy plan was confirmed by the court on February 28, 2014. On that day, Sprei hand-delivered a $200,000 check to Pasternak, according to the grievances committee.
For years, Pasternak never disclosed these payments to his client Moncho, his law firm, or to the bankruptcy court, the U.S. trustee’s office or the IRS, according to the Grievance Committee.
Moncho filed a malpractice suit against Pasternak and others in 2017, claiming Pasternak negligently introduced him and encouraged him to do business with Sprei and his business partner Chaim Miller.
A year later, an ethics counsel for Pasternak’s law firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr conducted an internal investigation and sent a letter to the bankruptcy judge admitting Pasternak accepted a $25,000 payment.
But Pasternak was less forthcoming about the other payments, according to the grievance committee. He had claimed his counsel disclosed the $200,000 payment to the U.S. Trustee in 2018, but the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy denied that Pasternak’s counsel ever made the disclosure.
The grievance committee claims Pasternak only disclosed the $200,000 payment when the payment came to light during the discovery process as part of the lawsuit brought by Moncho.
Pasternak submitted a declaration on November 7, 2025, admitting to wrongdoing and taking responsibility for violating the court’s rules. He consented to the three-year suspension.
Pasternak’s suspension begins on February 9. He did not return a request for comment. An attorney for Sprei also did not return a request for comment.
For the better part of a decade, Sprei and his former partner Chaim Miller became known for the lengthy legal battles with creditors and investors. Sprei was tasked with finding deals for Miller, but now he appears to be on his own. In August 2024, Sprei purchased a 41-unit rental property from Madison Realty Capital.
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