The men who run the Democratic Party in New York’s largest borough have a tasty side hustle

The three lawyers who run one of the largest Democratic organizations in America have more than one way to get rich.

There is Surrogate’s Court, where the estates of the unfortunate people who die without wills are processed. This remains the domain of Gerard Sweeney, the master strategist of the Queens County Democratic Party and a bosom friend of the man who dreams of becoming the next Speaker of the House, Representative Joe Crowley. Since 2006, Sweeney has made $30 million as the borough’s counsel to the public administrator, a post that only those in the Democratic machine get to hold.

As the official chairman of the Queens Democrats, Crowley hands off the day-to-day affairs of his aging political apparatus to Sweeney and his two law partners, Michael Reich and Frank Bolz. Reich is the executive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party and Bolz is its law chair, plum positions they’ve each held for more than two decades. Until 2015, the powerful attorneys had a fourth partner, David Gallo, who brought another type of business to the very lucrative and politically connected law firm: foreclosing on people’s homes.

Since at least 2005, the law firm has represented banks and mortgage servicers in thousands of foreclosure cases throughout New York State, including many in Queens, where it wields its political clout. Unlike its work in Surrogate’s Court, where its favorite attorneys can reap handsome fees as guardians to the incapacitated, the foreclosure practice is rarely discussed or reported on. Even Queens Democratic insiders know little about it.

In court records, the firm is listed under its old name, Sweeney, Gallo, Reich and Bolz. The circumstances of Gallo’s departure are unclear. Shortly after the separation, Sweeney, Reich and Bolz relocated from Queens to Nassau County to focus primarily on probate law. Gallo still specializes in foreclosures.

This does not mean, however, that the three men have stopped earning money from taking distressed homeowners to court. Dozens of cases are still active, with court dates set for this month, next month, and the latter half of 2017. Many of them were initiated more than a half-decade ago.