Since July, when clients of Chak Yin Lee called or visited the attorney's office at 401 Broadway, they were met with only a stonewall.

First, there was the secretary who made excuses for her bosses' whereabouts. Then there was simply an answering machine and a locked door. And finally, only a disconnected phone and a note on the door with a phone number for a detective at the 1st Precinct and a message: "If you have a complaint against Chak Yin Lee, it is critical that you call."

So far, at least 10 clients have made the call, complaining of stolen closing fees and other funds from real estate dealings totaling $813,839.87 since February, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

After months of investigation, Lee was arrested at his Warren, N.J., home in October and was indicted last month for criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny and scheme to defraud. He was arraigned on Nov. 9 and remained in jail last month in lieu of $533,000 bond.

The indictment said Lee, who represented sellers in real estate transactions, accepted deposit checks from buyers and deposited them into escrow accounts. The funds were supposed to be delivered to his clients, the sellers, at the time of closing. Instead, Lee withdrew the money and transferred it into his personal bank account.

A spokeswoman with the Manhattan D.A.'s office said that many of the withdrawals were made from ATM machines in Atlantic City, N.J., and that Lee told prosecutors he had spent the money gambling.

Initially, many of his victims were unaware that he was cheating them out of thousands of dollars because he kept postponing the closing dates, she said.

One such victim, a Chatham Towers resident who did not want to be identified, told the Trib he was preparing to board a plane in July to return to the city for the closing of the sale of his apartment when he got a call from Lee's secretary.

"She said the closing would have to be postponed because Mr. Lee had been in an auto accident," he recalls.

He said he took her at her word and closed the sale without Lee, and without the $43,500 check the attorney was holding.

"I'm not a suspicious person," he said. "I had done deals with [Lee] before and they were fine. I had no reason to believe he was a fly-by-night lawyer."

The sales eventually went through in most cases, but the sellers lost their down payments.

According to the D.A.'s office, the victims, all Chinese-Americans, were from all five boroughs and the amount stolen from each client ranged from $2,000 to the $426,859.87 he stole from a Brooklyn victim, who never received a dime from the sale of his home. Lee had instructed the buyer to give the down payment and all further checks to him.