Thomas Evan Schindler, 62, of Newlin Township, admitted in court that he had taken money from clients that he was not entitled to, and had in one case lied about where the money was.
The
total number of money stolen comes to more than $1 million, according
to a summary of the cases provided by prosecutor Deputy District
Attorney William J. Judge Jr.
According to the terms of his plea agreement, Schindler will be sentenced to a state prison term of 2.5 to 6 years. He will be placed on probation following his prison term, and have to make restitution to the four victims in the case, three of whom had hired him to represent them in civil and criminal cases, the news site said.
Schindler was initially charged by Easttown police in June 2021 with stealing over $991,000 from a former client who hired him for a divorce proceeding. According to the Daily Local News, Schindler failed to make the required transfers of proceeds from the sale of the couple’s home.
He was then arrested this year by Chester County detectives, and charged with two separate cases of stealing $86,000 from former clients, looting an escrow account that had been set up to handle the victims’ funds and taking money to represent a man charged in a criminal case but doing little or no work before he was disbarred. In one case, he reported the theft to investigators himself, the news outlet reported.
Schindler, who was disbarred in 2020, will remain free on bail until he is formally sentenced, sometime early next year.
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Pa. lawyer pleads guilty to stealing $1 million from his clients
Interesting that in one case he reported the theft himself. I wonder how and why he did that. He surely didn't say-- hey, folks, I don't know how this happened, but I somehow have an extra 86,000 in my pocket. . .
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