Cops: Attorney withdrew cash before suicide

The attorney at the center of a Ponzi scheme investigation was withdrawing "large sums" from his bank accounts before he apparently leaped to his death from the top of a Hempstead office building, a Nassau police spokesman said Thursday.

The withdrawals occurred as investors in what Jay Korn, 70, told people was a real estate investment business began demanding their money back, authorities said.

At least 75 have complained to the Nassau prosecutors that they gave Korn, Rockville Centre, a total of $24 million and now don't know where it is, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. Rice has said the complaints say Korn, who died March 24, was running a "possible Ponzi scheme."

According to attorneys representing many of the investors, Korn told friends and clients they could get 12 to 15 percent returns on investments in real estate that he was buying and selling.

No one has been charged, and authorities have said they do not believe Korn's law partner, Arthur Spirn, was involved.

Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone would not reveal how much Korn had withdrawn in the lead up to his death, but called it "significant."

"It looked suspicious," Repalone said, and is one reason police believe the death was a suicide. He added: "It's certainly enough for us to want to look deeper into a possible motive."

Korn, who worked at 50 Clinton St., gained access to the eight-story building's roof by telling a maintenance man he wanted to take photographs of the view, Repalone said. A camera was found on the roof.

Police believe Korn climbed a 3-foot-tall parapet and jumped from there, Repalone said.

"There's no reason for anybody to climb that," he said. "It doesn't give you a better view."