From Hero To Zero

Even in a city saturated with success stories, Adam C. Hochfelder achieved more by his early 30s than most people do in a lifetime. He bought a jacket and guitar signed by Dale Earnhardt Sr. He and his wife divorced last year. Adam C. Hochfelder’s went to Jericho High School. Through partnerships with prominent real estate families, he rose to manage or have ownership interest in $2.7 billion in Manhattan skyscrapers. He moved into Harry B. Helmsley’s former Park Avenue office and was embraced by the real estate world for his heady deals and charitable work. “He had a winning personality,” said Barry M. Gosin, chief executive of the real estate brokerage firm Newmark Knight Frank, where Mr. Hochfelder briefly worked and which later negotiated leasing deals at Mr. Hochfelder’s buildings. “He always wanted to be liked, and he always wanted to accommodate people.” He is 38 now, an age where he might have already had his name on a building, if his name still carried weight. Last month, Mr. Hochfelder was indicted for the second time on charges that he had stolen millions of dollars from investors or lenders through fraud, forgery or deceit. As described by the indictments, the people he had cheated or used spanned his world, including not only business executives but also his relatives and a member of his wedding party. At his latest arraignment, the voice of the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Tanya C. Apparicio, rang with frustration when she described Mr. Hochfelder’s “outstanding level of arrogance and entitlement.” The charges were not the extent of his troubles. Speeding his descent was an addiction to cocaine so serious that it “impaired his ability to make the distinction between fantasy and reality,” one of his psychologists, Paul J. Rinaldi, said in court papers. Damage to Mr. Hochfelder’s nose required at least two operations to repair.