Attorney Charged With Theft in Sale of Clients’ Apartments

A Woodland Hills attorney has been charged with grand theft and forgery for allegedly selling his clients’ apartment house in Thousand Oaks in secret and pocketing the profit from the deal.

Los Angeles police said that the attorney, Cary A. Rosen, received $72,095 for the 1980 sale of the apartment building after forging the signatures of the two principal owners--his clients--on a deed.

The alleged fraud was uncovered this fall after the death of one of the owners, a Camarillo physician, and the discovery by his daughter that the property had been sold, Detective Larry Kamin said.

Rosen, 43, an Agoura resident, surrendered to police Monday and was released after posting $1,500 bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 22 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Rosen declined to comment on the charges.

Police said that Rosen represented the owners of the Thousand Oaks property since 1973, when the building was leased to an investment company. The lease was scheduled to mature in 1983, when the building was to be sold for $92,000 above the amount of the mortgage, Kamin said.

But Rosen sold the building on Jan. 10, 1980, for $72,095 above the amount of the mortgage, without telling his clients, Kamin said. Later, Rosen told his clients that the lease was being extended, the detective said.

A spokeswoman for the state Bar of California said she is prohibited from saying whether the licensing body is investigating the case. When an attorney is convicted of a crime, the State Bar of California can recommend that the state Supreme Court suspend the attorney if it concludes that the crime involved “moral turpitude.”