Disbarred, convicted Hendersonville attorney sentenced 35 years

by: Brittney Baird, Caitlin Huff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) —   A disbarred and convicted Hendersonville attorney was sentenced to a total of 35 years on Friday. But, the years will be served consecutively. Andy Allman has been sentenced to 35 years at 30% in state prison.

In November 2021, Andy Allman was found guilty of 18 counts of charges ranging from theft and impersonating a licensed professional to practicing law without a license.

Judge Dee David Gay said, “I want everyone to know that I’ve thought a lot about this case since the stories hit. It’s taken it’s time to make it’s way through the criminal courts because it’s so massive; the evidence is numerous.”

“What he did is something out of the ‘Twilight Zone,'” Judge Gay said his crimes has had a tremendous effect on the legal system, Judges and attorneys as it relates to violating public trust.

Some of the factors the Judge took into consideration for the sentencing included the following: Enhancement factor one; the defendant has previous history of criminal behavior. Enhancement factor three; the offense involved more than one victim. Enhancement factor number seven: released on bail and committed felony. Enhanced factor 14; abused position of public private trust. Enhancement factor 24; offense of theft of property and damage to the victim.

“I have seen no remorse,” added Judge Gay.

Judge Gay said the case involved at least 212 victims, millions of dollars and multiple attempts of disbarment over a six year period.

“I’m still uncertain to why all this happened. That’s been my question from the very beginning. We’ve gone through this, and I still don’t know. All I know is what has been presented to me. And, I’ll base my decision off of that,” said the Judge.

In a nine-day-long trial, prosecutors argued Allman stole money from clients who gave him funds to hold in trust accounts for them.

Allman ultimately represented himself during the trial. Judge Gay said he claimed he didn’t do anything wrong.

“[The Jury] convicted him on every count as charged. That meant a lot to the victims because Mr. Allman has never shown any sort of contrition. He’s never said sorry for what I did,” says Thomas Dean, Asst. DA for Sumner County. 

Allman stole money from clients who gave him funds to hold in trust accounts for them. He also practiced law after being arrested and told not to.

Allman also faces charges in Davidson County. A trial is slated for early 2023.

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Disbarred, convicted Hendersonville attorney sentenced 35 years

Disbarred Winter Park attorney gets 5 years for stealing $3M from elderly client

by Brenda Argueta

Matthew Roby (Orange County Sheriff's Office)

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A disbarred Winter Park attorney received prison time after agreeing to a plea deal for stealing $3 million from an elderly client.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Matthew Roby was arrested in 2021 and agreed to the plea deal Friday for exploitation of an elderly person and grand theft of more than $100,000.

Deputies said Roby stole from Helen Kuhn, a client of his, by fraudulently getting a power of attorney and “draining her accounts.”

The sheriff’s office said more than $2.4 million of the stolen funds were able to be recovered.

Officials said there may be more victims. Anyone with information is asked to call 407-836-4357.

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Disbarred Winter Park attorney gets 5 years for stealing $3M from elderly client

Disbarred Lawyer Mitchell Kossoff Sentenced to 13.5 Years for Bilking Clients

By Nicholas Rizzi

Disbarred lawyer Mitchell Kossoff — who represented many multifamily landlords in New York City — was sentenced to up to 13.5 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to bilking his clients out of more than $14.6 million.

A judge sentenced Kossoff, 68, to between 4 and 1/2 to 13 and 1/2 years in prison on Friday morning for three counts of grand larceny and one count of scheme to defraud after he used funds stolen from his clients’ escrow accounts to fund his lifestyle expenses, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In addition to his prison sentence, Kossoff will be required to pay back the $14.6 million and surrender a condominium in Highlands, N.J., Bragg said.

“When clients hire counsel to represent them, they expect their attorney will follow the highest ethical standards,” Bragg said in a statement. “Yet Mitchell Kossoff violated the fundamental trust of his clients by taking millions for himself. His actions betray the standards that we as lawyers are taught from the very beginning of our careers and will not be tolerated

Kossoff’s lawyer, Walter Mack, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Known for his tough-guy approach, and teaching spin classes on the side, Kossoff represented many of the city’s multifamily landlords, including Icon Realty Management, Stellar Management and Steve Croman, who himself pleaded guilty to tax fraud in 2017.

But, starting in 2017, Kossoff began shifting funds from at least 35 of his clients’ escrow accounts to his own to pay for more than $19,000 a month in rent in a luxury apartment building and $16,000 in personal credit card bills, according to his plea agreement. Kossoff also used the money to pay back other clients he stole from, the DA said.

He swiped more than $1 million alone from United America Land affiliate 118 Duane, which owns the five-story 118-120 Duane Street, courts records show.

Kossoff’s crimes caught up with him in April 2021 after he pulled a disappearing act by ghosting his colleagues at his eponymous law firm and his clients for days. He was hit with a string of lawsuits from landlords trying to get back their escrow funds.

He eventually resurfaced and surrendered himself to authorities in November 2021. Kossoff pleaded guilty to stealing from dozens of his clients last December.

Aside from wiping out escrow accounts, Kossoff also allegedly forged his own mother’s signature on more than $2 million of defaulted loans, according to court records.

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Disbarred Lawyer Mitchell Kossoff Sentenced to 13.5 Years for Bilking Clients

Disbarred Attorney Sentenced To Four Years For Conspiring To Commit Bankruptcy Fraud And Defrauding Clients Of $1.3 Million

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Middle District of Florida

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, March 18, 2022

 

Disbarred Attorney Sentenced To Four Years For Conspiring To Commit Bankruptcy Fraud And Defrauding Clients Of $1.3 Million

Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber has sentenced James Lee Clark (61, Wilton Manors) to 48 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud and wire fraud.  Clark had pleaded guilty on December 14, 2021.

According to court documents, from January 2010 through February 2017, Clark, who was a licensed attorney, conspired with his paralegal, Eric Liebman, to defraud mortgage creditors and guarantors holding notes on properties in foreclosure. Clark and Liebman falsely and fraudulently represented to distressed homeowners that they would negotiate with creditors and guarantors to prevent foreclosures in exchange for the homeowners’ execution of quitclaim or warranty deeds for the properties to an entity controlled by Liebman. Clark and Liebman also convinced the homeowners to pay rent or agree to sell their houses.  In order to continue collecting ill-gotten rents and/or profit from the property sales, Clark filed fraudulent bankruptcy petitions in the names of the homeowners to prevent the mortgage creditors from lawfully foreclosing and taking title to the properties.

Additionally, from January 2012 to February 2017, Clark defrauded his clients out of approximately $1.3 million. As part of his practice, Clark acted as a trustee for clients and held their money in various bank accounts.  Instead of using the funds for the purpose intended by his clients, Clark diverted the money into his law firm’s bank accounts, and used it for personal expenses, like gambling, travel, and automobiles. 

Liebman previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud. He was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment.

This case was investigated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency – Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Office of the United States Trustee for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa Division) provided substantial investigative support. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Chris Poor.

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Disbarred Attorney Sentenced To Four Years For Conspiring To Commit Bankruptcy Fraud And Defrauding Clients Of $1.3 Million

Former Lawyer Sentenced to Prison for Stealing From Clients

BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) — A judge has sentenced a disbarred attorney in Maine to 2½ years in prison and ordered him to repay more than $260,000 that he stole from clients.

The Portland Press Herald reports 69-year-old James Whittemore was sentenced Monday after he pleaded guilty to theft by misapplication of property and theft by unauthorized taking.

Prosecutors say Whittemore held money for his clients in a trust account in three separate instances and took the money for his personal use.

In one case, the former attorney never turned over $100,000 that an insurance company awarded to a woman and her children after her husband died in a motorcycle accident.

A judge ordered disbarment for Whittemore in November, and he apologized in court Monday. He will begin serving his sentence in April.

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Former Lawyer Sentenced to Prison for Stealing From Clients

See Also:
Brunswick lawyer disbarred over misuse of funds totaling $287K

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Northern District of Oklahoma

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Disbarred Tulsa Guardian Attorney Sentenced to Prison for Nearly $600,000 Fraud

A disbarred Tulsa guardianship attorney has been ordered to federal prison following his conviction for bank fraud and money laundering in a scheme that defrauded his client of $589,393, announced U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. Glenn Martin Mirando, 64 of Tulsa, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty September 4, 2018.

Today, U.S. District Judge John E. Dowdell sentenced Mirando to 33 months in prison, for both bank fraud and money laundering, to be followed by five and three years of supervised release.

The court also ordered a criminal forfeiture money judgment in the sum of $589,393, representing proceeds obtained through those crimes. All monies will go to provide restitution to the victim.

“Mirando chose to violate and abuse both his position of trust as a formerly licensed attorney and his position of trust as a court appointed guardian for the victim of this horrible fraud. Embezzling almost $600,000 from a vulnerable individual who was receiving medical treatment in order to maintain an extravagant personal lifestyle for himself and his family is inexcusable. Even more egregious, Mirando used his skills as an attorney to conceal the theft for three years by laundering the proceeds of the bank fraud scheme through the movement of cash between multiple bank accounts. The violation of such positions of trust should be severely punished as a deterrent”, said U.S. Attorney Shores.

The victim told the court at length how Mirando’s fraud harmed her financially. The victim questioned why Mirando had made no attempt to repay her in the three years that had passed since the discovery of the crime in late 2015.

Mirando was a self-employed, licensed attorney in the state of Oklahoma from 1989 until he was suspended in 2016 and then disbarred from the practice of law by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2018.

The bank fraud violations stem from a scheme in which Mirando used his position as an attorney and court-appointed Guardian to steal funds from his client, by causing funds to be disbursed from the victim’s IRA account at Wells Fargo in St. Louis, Missouri, without her knowledge, to an account Mirando controlled at Tulsa Teachers Credit Union (“TTCU”) where he then would withdraw the funds in cash. Mirando would then engage in financial transactions with the stolen funds for his personal benefit with the intent to conceal the proceeds of the fraud.

Beginning on January 3, 2013 and continuing through December 2015, Mirando requested distributions from the victim’s IRA account at Wells Fargo. When Wells Fargo would distribute the withdrawals to the TTCU account Mirando opened, Wells Fargo also withheld and paid Federal income tax and Oklahoma state income tax on each distribution. Mirando then would withdraw cash from the TTCU account and deposit the cash he withdrew into other accounts at TTCU in his name, his business’ name, and his wife’s name. The victim never made any cash withdrawals from the account at TTCU nor did the victim receive any cash directly from Mirando.

To further conceal the scheme, Mirando would withdraw cash from the TTCU account, wait a couple of hours or sometimes a day and then make cash deposits into other accounts at TTCU with the aggregate amount being slightly different from the total cash withdrawal.

Mirando had $782,357 under his control and custody, which was withdrawn from the victim’s IRA at Wells Fargo. From the foregoing amount, Mirando paid $121,000 directly to the victim and paid $14,074.23 to others on behalf of the victim.  The cumulative loss attributable to Mirando (inclusive of federal and state taxes that were paid by Wells Fargo on behalf of the victim), which were used for sentencing purposes, is in excess of $589,393.

Most of the stolen funds appear to have been used to support the lifestyle of Mirando and his family members. The 306 cash withdrawals Mirando made totaling $466,950 were subsequently deposited into his personal account, his business account, and his wife’s personal account and used to pay personal expenses. Coupled with the federal and state taxes paid by Wells Fargo on behalf of the victim and taken from the victim’s IRA, the total loss for sentencing purposes was in excess of $589,393.

This was a joint state/federal investigation involving the U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tulsa Police Department, and Tulsa County District Attorney.   Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles M. McLoughlin and Catherine J. Depew prosecuted the case.

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Disbarred Tulsa Guardian Attorney Sentenced to Prison for Nearly $600,000 Fraud

Disbarred Tulsa attorney sentenced to prison after admitting to stealing nearly $600,000 from a client

Glenn Martin Mirando

A disbarred Tulsa attorney was sentenced Wednesday to nearly three years in prison after admitting to bank fraud tied to the theft of nearly $600,000 from a client for whom he was a court-appointed guardian.

U.S. District Judge John Dowdell handed Glenn Martin Mirando a prison term of two years and nine months, saying his crimes warranted a “substantial sentence of imprisonment.”

Dowdell also ordered Mirando to make restitution totaling $589,393 and serve five years of post-custody supervision under the U.S. Probation Office.

Federal prosecutors had filed a two-count complaint in June alleging that the 64-year-old stole the $589,393 through unauthorized cash withdrawals from his client between 2013 and 2016. Mirando pleaded guilty Sept. 4.

The theft occurred after a state court judge appointed Mirando as the guardian for the 66-year-old woman and her estate in 2012.

As guardian, Mirando controlled the woman’s financial accounts, including an Individual Retirement Account with funds totaling nearly $1.3 million, plus checking accounts, court records indicate. The woman was incapacitated at the time, according to federal prosecutors.

Mirando used the stolen funds to support his lifestyle and that of his family members, prosecutors said.

“Mirando chose to violate and abuse both his position of trust as a formerly licensed attorney and his position of trust as a court appointed guardian for the victim of this horrible fraud,” U.S. Attorney Trent Shores said in a statement.

“Embezzling almost $600,000 from a vulnerable individual who was receiving medical treatment in order to maintain an extravagant personal lifestyle for himself and his family is inexcusable,” Shores said.

“Even more egregious, Mirando used his skills as an attorney to conceal the theft for three years by laundering the proceeds of the bank fraud scheme through the movement of cash between multiple bank accounts,” the prosecutor continued.

Mirando made 306 cash withdrawals from the woman’s financial accounts, depositing the money into his personal account, his business account and his wife’s personal account, and used the money to pay personal expenses, according to a court filing by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McLoughlin said during the sentencing hearing in Tulsa federal court that Mirando’s actions were “incredibly premeditated.”

Mirando “step-by-step looted” the woman’s inheritance, he said.

A presentencing report by the U.S. Probation Office found that Mirando should receive a prison term between 41 and 51 months under federal sentencing guidelines.

However, papers filed on Mirando’s behalf asked the judge to take into account his age, “long-ago addiction issues” and past history of cancer when deciding a sentence.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office asked that Mirando be sentenced within the guideline range.

“Mirando does not need a ‘0’ month sentence with supervised release, instead he requires the strong sanction of a sentence of incarceration with the Federal Bureau of Prisons within the sentencing guideline range of 41-51 months,” a prosecutor wrote.

Dowdell, citing Mirando’s health problems, agreed to the shorter 33-month prison term.

Mirando apologized to the judge and victim for his actions.

“I take full responsibility,” he said. “Those were my actions. My actions were horrendous.”

Mirando previously had colon cancer, which has been adequately treated, according to the court filing on his behalf.

A doctor has recommended that Mirando be subject to ongoing monitoring to ensure that “the life threatening cancer does not return or get worse,” the court filing states.

“Counsel has no reason to believe that the Bureau of Prisons is in any way capable of performing these medical tests, even if they had any interest in doing so,” Mirando’s attorney, Allen Smallwood, wrote.

However, regarding Mirando’s concerns that he would not be monitored for a recurrence of cancer, McLoughlin wrote that the defendant had provided no evidence that the Bureau of Prisons was incapable of meeting his medical needs.

Mirando, who has been free on bond since the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the two-count felony information, was ordered to report to prison by May 23. Dowdell indicated that he would recommend that federal Bureau of Prisons officials assign Mirando to a facility with a hospital, either in Springfield, Missouri, or in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mirando also faces state charges in Tulsa County District Court stemming from the same conduct. McLoughlin said it was his understanding that those charges might be dismissed depending on the outcome of the federal case.

Mirando was disbarred in 2016, McLoughlin said.

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Disbarred Tulsa attorney sentenced to prison after admitting to stealing nearly $600,000 from a client