Former Rockville attorney sentenced in $4.2M fraud scheme

Sari Kurland to serve 13 years after pleading guilty to stealing from 21 victims

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May 29, 2026 11:00 a.m.

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A former Rockville attorney will spend 13 years in prison following her sentencing Thursday for stealing $4.2 million from 21 victims through three fraud schemes, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said Thursday afternoon in a statement. 

In Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville, Judge John Maloney sentenced Sari Kurland, 65, of Rockville, also known as Sari Bloch, to 80 years in prison, with all but 13 years suspended, and five years of supervised probation upon her release. She is also required to pay more than $4.2 million in restitution, according to the statement.

“This defendant occupied a position of trust as an attorney and fiduciary. She betrayed that trust, along with her professional responsibility, by mishandling millions of dollars entrusted to her by clients and investors,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in Thursday’s statement, commending the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission and the State’s Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division for their investigation. 

In an emailed statement Thursday evening, Kurland’s attorney Daniel Suleiman of Covington & Burling LLP told Bethesda Today that Kurland “has taken responsibility for her actions and apologized to all of the victims in this case.”

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He also noted that “at the same time, as the Court recognized today, there were important mitigating circumstances. Ms. Kurland was suffering from a mental illness, was herself the target of a complex overseas scam, and did not profit from her misconduct.”

Kurland, who held an active Maryland law license until Jan. 26, 2024, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to “one count of theft scheme over $100,000 and fifteen counts of misappropriation by a fiduciary, stemming from three separate fraud schemes that impacted 21 victims and totaled more than $4.2 million in losses, according to the statement from the state’s attorney’s office.

Prosecutors alleged that between May 2022 and September 2024, Kurland carried out three separate fraudulent schemes that ultimately defrauded the victims out of $4,216,656.50, the state’s attorney’s office said.

In the first and largest scheme involving 18 victims, she solicited loans from investors under the guise of financing a Middle Eastern petroleum deal. Victims were promised high returns on these short-term loans, but instead the money was wired to an overseas account and investors never received the promised proceeds. 

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A second scheme involved two victims who provided Kurland with funds to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. Kurland was expected to hold the money in her attorney escrow account and returned after the deals closed, but prosecutors allege she instead diverted the funds for her own use.

The third scheme involved a struggling business owner who hired Kurland for bankruptcy filing assistance. Instead, Kurland allegedly persuaded the victim to pursue settlements with clients. She was given about $150,000 to negotiate payments with seven of his former clients, but only $34,600 was disbursed, while the remainder was placed in her attorney trust account and “disbursed to other parties unrelated to the victim,” the state’s attorney’s office said.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorneys Robert Hill and John Lalos, working with the State’s Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County Special Prosecutions Division.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine