A now-disbarred Kentucky attorney was
sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday and ordered to pay back
nearly $1.3 million to former clients from whom he stole to pay gambling
debts.
Danny Butler, 72, pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud in December 2018 in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers sentenced Butler to the prison term as well as two years of supervised release.
Butler admitted that between 2009 and 2016 he stole money from estates and took money for legal work he didn't do.
Butler
practiced in Greensburg but had victims in several counties. The
largest loss to a single client was $401,000. There were 11 victims in
total.
He used some of the stolen funds to pay for about $1.5 million in gambling losses.
Six
of Butler's victims, who are identified by their initials in federal
court records, have received partial reimbursement from the Kentucky Bar Association's Clients' Security Fund.
Those reimbursements are capped at $50,000 per claim, with a total cap per attorney of $150,000.
Court records show the fund has paid out about $113,000.
Butler,
who began practicing in 1973, has a long disciplinary history including
four private admonitions and a private reprimand, according to the
Kentucky Supreme Court.
The Courier Journal previously reported that his
scheme unraveled when two brothers awaiting proceeds of an estate
contacted authorities about Butler's continued excuses for not giving
them their money.
Full Article & Source:
Ex-Kentucky lawyer sentenced to 8 years in prison over stolen $1.3 million
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