Facing two separate lawsuits alleging he misused funds, Edgartown attorney Edward W. (Peter) Vincent Jr. has had his bank accounts frozen and liens totalling $700,000 attached to his South Water street residence and other assets.

The cases also have prompted complaints alleging misconduct by Mr. Vincent to the state body that oversees lawyers, which is investigating, and to the Edgartown police department, which has opened an investigation into whether there is cause for criminal charges.

In the first legal case, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed suit in Dukes County Superior Court on March 9, “concerned that Mr. Vincent has absconded with its money.”

At issue in the case is a sum of nearly $200,000 due but not paid to the MSPCA from the proceeds of a $950,000 real estate sale in January. The judge presiding over the MSPCA complaint immediately issued temporary orders that Mr. Vincent, without notice, be prohibited from transferring money or assets in his personal or business accounts. Liens of $200,000 were placed on the assets and accounts of Mr. Vincent and his trusts. Ordered by the court, the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank reported $3,506.25 in his account as of March 14. Mr. Vincent was given a week to respond to the MSPCA suit but he did not appear in court March 17, and the orders stand.

Edgartown police chief Tony Bettencourt said he also was contacted by the MSPCA and has the case under investigation. He has in turn given the information to the Attorney General’s office, but as of Thursday afternoon he had no response whether that office would assume responsibility for the investigation.

A second, separate legal complaint against Mr. Vincent was filed last Friday in Suffolk Superior Court. It stems from another Edgartown real estate sale, which closed in February, where Mr. Vincent signed documents saying that he collected more than $400,000 and used the money to pay the sellers’ mortgages, however the lawsuit contends that the mortgages were never paid.

That case has been brought by First American Title Insurance Company; Mr. Vincent is an agent for the company. First American’s complaint charges that it is exposed to liabilities of at least $450,000 in that deal and “is potentially exposed to unknown liabilities with regard to other loan closings conducted by Mr. Vincent in which he failed to pay pre-existing liens.”

First American successfully argued for immediate, temporary court orders giving the company access to all documents related to the real estate deal involved, as well as files dating back as far as 2005. Mr. Vincent and his associates were ordered not to alter or destroy any of those records. Representatives of First American were in Mr. Vincent’s office this week.

The judge also attached a lien up to $500,000 to real estate belonging to Mr. Vincent or his trusts and also froze his assets, including any bank accounts “other than for normal, incidental living expenses not to exceed $1,000” per month, not including mortgage or car loan payments or utility bills.

The judge also issued a writ of real estate attachment applying to any payments up to $500,000 from the Vineyard Golf Club, which leases land from trusts involving Mr. Vincent. The leases are through Golf Club of Martha’s Vineyard Inc. and Vineyard Golf Partners LLC, two entities representing the private Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown.

The affidavit of First American’s claims counsel argued, “There is a clear danger that Vincent may try to fraudulently convey or encumber his property if apprised in advance of First American’s motions for real estate attachments and injunctive relief.”

The case was scheduled to be revisited by a judge in the Suffolk courtroom today at 2 p.m., to determine if the temporary orders should become preliminary injunctions pending a trial, as happened in the MSPCA case.

However, attorney Roger Matthews of the Boston firm Denner Pellegrino, representing Mr. Vincent, said yesterday that the hearing had been postponed by agreement. He did not know when the next hearing would be. All orders — liens, asset and account freezes — remain in place.

Mr. Vincent has been on vacation in the Turks and Caicos with friends from the Vineyard.

Chairman of the Edgartown Conservation Commission, Mr. Vincent did not attend Wednesday’s scheduled meeting of the commission.

A representative in Mr. Vincent’s law office yesterday said that no one in the office had comment nor knowledge of when Mr. Vincent would return to make any comment.

The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, which examines complaints against lawyers, has received complaints against Mr. Vincent and is investigating, its chief bar counsel, Constance Vecchione, told the Gazette. He will be given about 20 days to respond, she said. As of yesterday he had made no response to the board.

One of those complaints to the board of overseers was made by Tisbury attorney and selectman Geoghan Coogan. He represented parties in both real estate transactions which led to the two lawsuits against Mr. Vincent; Rogers Williams, who purchased the veterinary clinic from the MSPCA, and the sellers in the case that led to the First American suit.

In the MSPCA deal, the MSPCA hired Mr. Vincent to handle the sale of a veterinary clinic building and cottage on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, where for 50 years it had operated an animal shelter. (The MSPCA first subdivided the land into two parcels; the Island animal shelter is neither involved nor affected by the incidents prompting the lawsuit.)

After the sale closed, the MSPCA complaint reads, “instead of promptly transferring the monies to the MSPCA as he was legally and ethically obligated to do, Mr. Vincent waited about two weeks, and then sent only some of the funds.

“MSPCA has not received approximately $200,000 of the sale proceeds which were, and hopefully are, on deposit [in Mr. Vincent’s legal account at the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank].

“There is no basis for Mr. Vincent to withhold such monies and he has evaded multiple requests to remit the balance of the sale proceeds,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit details how a purchase and sale agreement on the property was executed on Jan. 21 this year, with $44,000 deposited. The balance was delivered to Mr. Vincent, as the MSPCA’s representative, at closing on Feb. 15.

After fees and expenses, the MSPCA expected to receive $940,246 immediately after the closing.

When no money was transferred, MSPCA chief financial office Amy Fredericks e-mailed Mr. Vincent’s daughter and associate, Eve Vincent, to inquire about the transfer of the sale proceeds to MSPCA. According to the complaint, Mr. Vincent did not respond.

After repeated inquiries about the delay, nearly two full weeks after the closing the MSPCA received $750,000, but not the full amount due.

According to the complaint, the MSPCA again called Mr. Vincent’s office to ask about the nearly $200,000 shortfall; the answer was that remaining funds would be delivered no later than March 7.

The MSPCA filed suit on March 9, when the money still had not been received.

“The circumstances strongly suggest that something is amiss,” the complaint reads. “Under ordinary circumstance, MSPCA would have received the entirety of the sale proceeds ... [but] more than a month has passed, and Mr. Vincent has not appeared to explain himself, and has evaded efforts to contact him.”

Financial concerns at the MSPCA prompted the Boston-based nonprofit to announce in February 2009 it would close the Island shelter. However, in May of that year, a public-private partnership opened the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard at the former MSPCA site, with an open-ended lease with the MSPCA allowing them to rent the building and take over most of the equipment at no cost. One condition was that the building must be used as an animal shelter in perpetuity, and the new facility would no longer receive funding from the MSPCA. The property where the Vineyard animal shelter is located was subdivided; the MSPCA intends to give the property to the Island shelter and the two parties are considering the most tax effective way to effect the transaction.

Meanwhile the First American case involves the sale of a property at 4 Robins Nest Road in Edgartown, sold in mid-February by Kenneth and Linda Robinson to Neil and Lindsey Grossman of Wilbraham, for $610,000.

Mr. Vincent represented the buyers and acted as settlement agent and agent of First American Title Insurance Company. He was to transfer the purchasing funds to pay off two mortgages in the sellers’ names.

Documents with his signature show that nearly $300,000 of the proceeds were to be paid by Mr. Vincent to Citizens Bank to pay off a first mortgage lien, and about $110,000 were to be used to pay off a second mortgage with Merrill Lynch.

However, the First American complaint reads, neither mortgage was paid.

“Despite repeated telephone calls to Vincent at his office, home, and to his cell phone during the period March 17 to 22, 2011, Vincent has failed to return any telephone calls from First American and/or its attorneys or to respond to written communications.”

First American’s complaint furthermore alleges that Mr. Vincent on 2007 fraudulently conveyed three parcels of property, comprising his own South Water street residence, to a trust “with the actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors.”