A real-estate lawyer under investigation in an alleged New York embezzlement case has agreed to be extradited and return to the U.S. from Hong Kong, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that authorities arrested the attorney Douglas R. Arntsen, who used to be with the firm of Crowell & Moring, in Hong Kong in September. A real estate firm, Regal Real Estate, went to the district attorney's office to caim that Arntsen could not come up with $2.5 million from an escrow account for a three-building real estate deal.

It's unclear what charges the DA will bring against Arntsen, the newspaper said. It quoted an attorney for Regal, Bruce Lederman, as saying, "This is like a bad episode of 'Law and Order.'"

The buildings in the deal that led to the claim are in lower Manhattan.