A Manhattan lawyer who stole 4.4 million dollars meant for COVID‑19 protective gear to fund a romance with his then‑CEO girlfriend has been sentenced to prison, the New York district attorney’s office said.
Disgraced real‑estate attorney Bryan McKenna, 62, broke down in tears before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Althea Drysdale, telling her he was “ashamed” and that he had tried to “lead a good life” before being hit with a sentence of two to six years in state prison.
McKenna’s defense lawyer, Eric Franz, told the court his client faced “financial struggles” and insisted the stolen money was meant to help his family, especially a son dealing with mental‑health issues. Franz said McKenna’s focus was on getting his son medical appointments and treatment.
But prosecutors painted a different picture. Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Borle said McKenna siphoned the 4.45 million dollars from an escrow account he was supposed to safeguard for Elkay Plastics, a packaging company that had paid the sum to buy 500,000 boxes of medical‑grade latex gloves as personal protective equipment during the peak of the pandemic.
According to the indictment, McKenna agreed in January 2021 to hold the funds in escrow until AstZen Group, a business‑consulting firm run by McKenna’s girlfriend, Duni Zenaye, shipped the gloves. By April of that year, however, he had drained the account, using the money to “benefit his personal life” and deepen his romantic relationship with Zenaye, who was not charged.
Prosecutors said McKenna was given a chance in summer 2021 to return the money but instead kept lying about its whereabouts until November.
In a separate case, McKenna admitted stealing more than 260,000 dollars from two clients in Manhattan and Brooklyn, leading to another indictment. He resigned from the New York State Bar Association in 2023.
“From real estate clients to a company purchasing hard‑to‑find medical gloves during the pandemic, Bryan McKenna repeatedly drained the accounts of those who looked to him for legal representation,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
