A New Jersey judge has found that a Cherry Hill lawyer and his father, charged with operating a lucrative Ponzi scheme, are responsible for nearly $37 million in damages to client protection funds in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Essex County Superior Court Judge Bridget Stecher on July 6 ordered lawyer Michael Kwasnik, formerly of Kwasnik & Associates, and his father, William Kwasnik, who was not a lawyer, to pay $36.88 million to the New Jersey Fund for Client Protection and the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security, which pay claims to clients who fall victim to lawyer misdeeds.