Brother of Local Attorney Charged with Theft

The brother of a local attorney who is on the run from police after allegedly stealing millions of dollars from his personal injury clients is also in trouble with the law.

According to court testimony Malcolm Snipes was picked up at his grandson’s Little League Championship game in Harris County after allegedly withdrawing thousands of dollars from a trust used for settlement funds that was supposed to be paid to his brother’s clients.

The 74 year old brother and employee of William Snipes had five felony warrants for his arrest by the time Investigators caught up with him and more charges pending.

A police detective told the judge the multi million dollar theft scam was a family affair with funds transferred into family members accounts and surveillance video from a local BB&T bank proves it.

Malcolm Snipes made multiple withdrawals from that trust account, each time careful not to take more than ten thousand dollars , the threshold amount required to report to the IRS.

His defense attorney Bobby Jones said Malcolm Snipes was a signature on the account even though the State Bar permits Licensed Attorneys only to hold such settlement accounts.

Malcolm Snipes is not an attorney.

“If I work for an attorney that did personal injury law and I was on the account and the attorney suggested  that I go get the money out of the account then I would go get the money out of the account if I was a non lawyer and didn’t know Bar rules,” attorney Robert Jones said.

In a contentious back and forth with Prosecutors the defense attorney suggested the arrest of Malcolm Snipes was a mere ploy to find William Snipes whose been spotted in Mississippi and Alabama since the scandal broke.

“Many times I’ve seen police put pressure on other people in order to squeeze them so to speak to either get evidence on the person they’re really after, the target of the investigation or to possibly get the target to come in because an innocent pawn so to speak has been arrested and they wouldn’t want that to happen to that person,” Jones said.

As the wife of Malcolm Snipes appeared outside the courtroom, Some of her brother in law’s distraught clients appeared too, unable to contain their anger as they made their way from the parking lot

Police say more than 30 victims have come forward to report their personal injury claims, now in the millions were ripped off.

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Brother of Local Attorney Charged with Theft