NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Alan Lewis, the prominent white-collar defense attorney, has taken on the defense of Douglas Arntsen, the former Crowell & Moring lawyer who is accused of stealing at least $7.4 million in client funds and fleeing to Hong Kong to avoid arrest.

Lewis, 51 and a partner at Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, is representing Arntsen, who was arraigned Friday night in Manhattan criminal court and is currently being held without bail.

Prosecutors have charged Arntsen, 34, with fleeing the United States in September after they accused him of embezzling $2.5 million in client funds that had been placed in escrow for his client, Regal Real Estate. The amount he is accused of stealing has since risen to $7.4 million. Meanwhile, at the arraignment, prosecutors said Arntsen is under investigation for stealing an additional $21 million.

In Lewis, Arntsen is turning to a former colleague. Both men worked together at the firm now known as Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney from 2005 to 2006, when Lewis was a partner and Arntsen worked as an associate in the finance and distressed-debt practice. Lewis left for Carter Ledyard in 2006, and Arntsen stayed at Buchanan Ingersoll until he joined Crowell & Moring as counsel in 2007.

Lewis, who works in Carter Ledyard's Wall Street offices, has handled the defense of other high-profile clients. He currently represents former Tyco chief executive officer Dennis Kozlowski, who was convicted in 2005 along with another Tyco executive of looting more than $600 million from the company.

He also represents Christopher Finazzo, former executive vice president of apparel chain Aeropostale, who was charged in 2010 in connection with a $14 million kickback scheme; and he represented Richard Rubin, former chief executive officer of Donnkenny Inc, a woman's apparel manufacturer, who pleaded guilty in 1999 conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Richard Rubin, former chief executive officer of Donnkenny Inc, the woman's apparel manufacturer of the Pierre Cardin line.

FORMER BROOKLYN PROSECUTOR

After graduating from New York University School of Law in 1986, Lewis spent two years as an associate at Proskauer Rose, then served as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn until 1998. During his last three years as a Brooklyn prosecutor, he was counsel to the homicide bureau.

Reached by phone Monday, Lewis declined to comment on the Arntsen case beyond what he had said in court Friday, where he asserted that Arntsen had not fled to Hong Kong but already had planned a trip there. When asked how he came to represent Arntsen, Lewis simply said that he had been hired.

Prosecutors have said they began investigating Arntsen after a Regal Real Estate employee told them that the attorney was unable to account for the company's escrow funds and needed to go to Hong Kong to retrieve them. When authorities went to arrest Arntsen on Sept. 14, he had already left the country, prosecutors said.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office alleges that Arntsen orchestrated a complicated scheme involving "no less than 24 bank accounts" and a decoy so he could escape to Hong Kong.

A graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law, Arntsen resigned from Crowell & Moring on Sept. 12, just a day before the Manhattan District Attorney's office told the firm that he was under investigation.

Arntsen and Crowell & Moring face at least three civil lawsuits pertaining to his alleged theft of escrow funds.

A spokewoman for the Crowell & Moring was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Leigh Jones)

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