Reaper of Reparations

Reaper of Reparations

New York City lawyer Edward D. Fagan attracts controversy like a light draws bugs.

He is perhaps best known for his $1.3 billion settlement in 1998 with Swiss banks on behalf of Holocaust victims whose savings were never passed on to their families. Now he's involved in the effort to seek repayment on German gold-backed bonds issued by the Weimar regime in 1924 and 1930.

"The more controversial I am the bigger the issue," Fagan, 52, says.

Despite Fagan's international stature and record legal wins, many of his clients haven't been paid.

"We're eight years down the line, and people still don't have their money," Fagan says. "Some do, but the majority don't. ... That's what's pissing me off, the people are still getting screwed."

Fagan acknowledges he received a fee in the Swiss matter. In fact, he says he shared $450,000, a third of it, with those who didn't get any money.

Yet the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics is investigating charges Fagan misappropriated $400,000 from some of the Holocaust victims. He denies the allegation. If the charge is proven, he faces disbarment.

In another case, Fagan was ordered last year to pay a former client $3.16 million for malpractice in the case of a Brooklyn man left disabled when a seat belt allegedly malfunctioned in a car wreck. He has appealed the judgment, he says.

Born in Harlingen, Texas, and raised in San Antonio, Fagan comes from a family of lawyers. His uncle, cousins and a brother are attorneys.

He spent four years in Israel in the early 1970s and planned to become a rabbi. But after several years of community service, he says he realized he had to make a living.

In 1980, he graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He worked for several firms prior to starting his own practice in 1992.

In 1996, he became involved in the reparations case on behalf of the Holocaust victims.

"Then the Swiss case led to the insurance case and the insurance case settled for a billion. The insurance case led to the German banks case and the German banks case led to the German industry case and the German banks and industry cases led to the Austrian case," he says.

He's also involved in a federal lawsuit for damages over art stolen in World War II by Germans, Hungarians, Austrians and Russians. He's lead counsel to many of the families of the victims killed in the Kaprun ski disaster in 2000. And he's working pro bono to help Tsunami victims gain access to records showing who knew what prior to that disaster.

- Janet Leiser