A sign stands in front of Chris Whalley's former office on Pine Street in Ellsworth in this file February 2022 photo. Credit: Bill Trotter / BDN
A former Ellsworth lawyer who was disbarred in December for allegedly
embezzling nearly $190,000 from a client’s estate has been indicted in
Hancock County.
Christopher J. Whalley was indicted Friday on a Class B charge of
theft. If convicted on the felony charge, he faces up to 10 years in
prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Whalley, 63, had his license to practice law in Maine revoked two months ago after
acknowledging misconduct in how he managed the estate of Wilbur
Knudsen, a Milbridge man who died in October 2018. His license was suspended a year ago when
a Superior Court justice determined that there could be “imminent
injury to his clients, the public and the administration of justice” if
he continued to practice law.
He was reported in 2019 to the Maine Overseers of the Bar, who
oversees the conduct of licensed lawyers in the state. He transferred
$189,375 — more than half of the Knudsen estate’s cash assets of
$378,336 — to his business bank accounts, according to documents filed with the oversight panel.
“In these actions, Whalley committed a criminal or unlawful act that
reflects adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a
lawyer,” Justice Ann Murray wrote in December in Whalley’s disbarment
order.
Whalley’s defense attorney, Walter McKee of Augusta, said Tuesday
that Whalley repaid all the mishandled money back to Knudsen’s estate
last year, plus interest. He declined further comment about the
indictment.
Whalley previously was suspended by the overseers in 2003, again in 2007 and a third time in 2021 for unrelated violations of bar rules.
In 2014, he was charged with assault for allegedly punching a client’s boyfriend, but that charge later was dropped by then-District Attorney Matthew Foster, according to the Ellsworth American.
A
Connecticut divorce lawyer has turned over some, but not all, of the
client information needed to comply with the court-ordered closure of
her practice after she was disbarred for making alleged antisemitic
claims about a conspiracy to control the state court system.
Nickola
Cunha, who was disbarred in January for the maximum allowable period of
five years for persistently making antisemitic claims about a judicial
conspiracy, was found in contempt of court in April and last week failed
to show up for a court hearing in Middletown before the judge who
disbarred her.
Cunha
was ordered to comply with instructions concerning the closing of her
law practice — which is being handled by an appointed trustee — and
explain why she withdrew $30,000 from a client account for her own
alleged use after the Judge Thomas Moukawsher, who disbarred her, told
her not to do so.
Last
week, Moukawsher issued a capias for Cunha, meaning she had until a
certain date and time to comply with court orders before she could be
brought into court by marshals to explain herself. The timeframe for the
capias was extended multiple times last week and early this week and,
as of Tuesday morning, had been extended until 3 p.m. Tuesday.
At
2:45 p.m. on Friday, Cunha allegedly walked into the North Haven law
office of Corrine Boni-Vendola, who is the trustee of Cunha’s firm,
according to court records.
Boni-Vendola
wrote in a report filed Monday that she was not in the office when
Cunha showed up, so the disbarred divorce lawyer met with Attorney
Nicole R. Crocco and turned over three client files, according to court
records.
She
told Crocco that most of her other clients’ files were in the
possession of her clients, but the trustee reported to the court that
she was not able to contact the clients because she did not have phone
numbers, email addresses or addresses for them, according to court
records.
Crocco
filed a list of more than 30 clients that Cunha said she’d given notice
and files to, had plans to hand over files to or who had other secured
new lawyers who now have their case files. Crocco also reported that
Cunha did not provide information for at least eight of her former
clients.
The
attorney also wrote that they were still missing information about
upcoming court dates for Cunha’s clients, information on retainers paid
or about balances owed for at least some clients; that the trustee’s
office had not yet received a list of clients’ funds, interest trust
accounts or accounts maintained by Cunha, including bank account
information and original checks; and that they’d gotten called from at
least two of Cunha’s former clients who were asking about the return of
retainers they paid in the amounts of $2,500 and $3,000, according to
court records.
Former legal scion Alex Murdaugh has been charged for money laundering, computer crimes, breach of trust and forgery.
AP Photo/Lewis M. Levine, Pool
Disgraced South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh was hit with 21 new charges in connection to his massive alleged scam to defraud victims out of $6.2 million.
A state grand jury slapped the 53-year-old with seven new indictments
Thursday that contained a slew of charges including money laundering,
computer crimes, breach of trust and forgery connected to more than $1
million dollars of theft, according to court documents obtained by The
Post.
Murdaugh — who is also facing charges for trying to stage his own shooting death
to leave his son a $10 million life insurance payout — was already
facing 28 counts in connection to an alleged $5 million theft.
The latest wave of charges allege that Murdaugh created a bank
account under the name ” Richard A Murdaugh Sole Prop DBA Forge,” where
he deposited money that he stole from clients.
“He created this account for the purpose of misappropriating funds belonging to others with the illusion that the money was being paid to the legitimate settlement planning company Forge Consulting, LLC,” the indictments read.
Murdaugh resigned from the prestigious and influential Hampton County law firm that his grandfather founded over 100 years ago in September and checked into rehab for a decades-long opioid addiction.
Alex Murdaugh (right) is accused of staging his death in
order to secure a $10 million life insurance payout for his son, Buster
(left).Facebook
Satterfield, 57, died after Murdaugh said she tripped over his dogs,
but no autopsy was ever conducted and the South Carolina Law Enforcement
Division opened a criminal investigation into her death this summer
after investigators said it was suspicious.
Murdaugh had promised her grown children that he would pay them
$500,000 after suing himself to collect on personal liability insurance,
but instead he collected $4 million and did not give Satterfield’s
family a dime, lawyers alleged.
A big chunk of that money went to Murdaugh’s distant cousin and alleged drug dealer Curtis Edward Smith, lawyers alleged Thursday.
“From approximately 2015 through 2021 Cousin Eddie received either
personal checks from Alex Murdaugh’s individual account and cashier’s
checks from the fake BOA two ‘Forge’ accounts totaling approximately
$2,000,000.00,” lawyers Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter wrote in a
statement to The Post.
Smith, 61, was charged in September after confessing to the botched Labor Day weekend shooting of Murdaugh,
in which the lawyer allegedly hired Smith to kill him so he could leave
his son Buster with $10 million in insurance cash. Smith’s bullet only
grazed him in the head.
Lawyers claim Alec Murdaugh never compensated Gloria Satterfield’s family after her suspicious death.Orange County Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS
The disgraced attorney’s legal troubles started after Murdaugh’s wife Maggie, 52 and son Paul, 22, were found murdered on their property in June. No suspects or motive have been publicly identified in the case.
Paul had been waiting to stand trial on charges that he drunkenly
crashed the family’s boat into a bridge, killing 19-year-old Mallory
Beach in 2019.
Alec Murdaugh listens to prosecutors during a bond hearing
in the Richland Judicial Center in Columbia, South Carolina on Oct. 19,
2021.AP Photo/Lewis M. Levine, Pool
“Greed, power, betrayal. All the bad things. It’s like a Grisham novel,” Bland told The Post in September. “He doesn’t have to write fiction, he can just come to South Carolina and write the truth.”
Federal prosecutors are asking that a
former lawyer with the now-defunct law firm of LeClairRyan, who
misappropriated $4 million, be sentenced to nearly four years in prison
and fined $250,000 for obstructing an official proceeding.
In
papers filed Monday, lawyers for Bruce H. Matson, a once high-profile
bankruptcy lawyer, are asking for a term of slightly more than three
years, citing Matson’s lack of a prior record, his repayment of the
money, his work as a law school professor and Sunday school teacher,
community service and other mitigating factors.
Matson,
64, pleaded guilty to the charge in July and is set to be sentenced
Nov. 22 by U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. He faces a maximum of
five years in prison. However, federal sentencing guidelines — not
binding on Gibney — call for a term of 37 to 46 months.
While
recognizing that Matson has repaid the money, a sentencing memorandum
filed by the U.S. attorney’s office asks Gibney to impose a term at the
top end of the guidelines.
Prosecutors
wrote that the crime “stemmed from the defendant’s furious but
ultimately unsuccessful attempts to conceal a course of criminal conduct
that spanned from 2015 to 2019, during which time the defendant used
his position as a court-appointed fiduciary to embezzle, misappropriate,
and dissipate more than $4,000,000 from the bankruptcy trust he had
been entrusted with.”
Matson’s lawyers conceded that his
conduct “was and is inexcusable. Nothing he has done or will do going
forward can ever change that fact, and we do not endeavor to suggest
otherwise.”
But,
they added, “Mr. Matson took immediate steps to atone for his
misconduct. He voluntarily resigned from the bar ... he directed [his
lawyers] to disclose critical information about his conduct that was not
then known to the government, to cooperate fully, and eventually to
negotiate a resolution with the Office of the U.S. Attorney. During that
process, and beginning prior to pleading guilty, Mr. Matson worked with
the government to make certain that all restitution was made.”
“While
his extraordinary efforts to pay restitution do not excuse his conduct
or lessen the seriousness of the offense, they present a substantial
mitigating factor that the Court should consider,” his lawyers wrote.
Court
records show that in 2019, Matson made false statements concerning
allegations that he misappropriated funds as a court-appointed trustee
in the bankruptcy of LandAmerica Financial Group. A federal
investigation found instances of Matson’s embezzlement from the
LandAmerica Trust between 2015 and 2018, totaling approximately $800,000
in misappropriated funds, prosecutors said.
LandAmerica,
a Henrico County-based title insurance company that was one of the
largest in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008.
In 2009, Matson was appointed the liquidation trustee by the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the LandAmerica Financial Group Liquidation Trust.
Then in 2015, Matson was appointed to serve as the fiduciary of the
wind-down funds.
His
law license was revoked by the Virginia State Bar last year after he
admitted disbursing more than $2.8 million in wind-down money in 2019 to
himself and another lawyer that was not to be disbursed until this
year.
Aware
that scrutiny would expose his criminal conduct, prosecutors said,
Matson engaged in obstructive conduct to conceal his misdeeds that
included: “filing letters with the Bankruptcy Court that contained
deliberate misrepresentations; attempting to mislead and/or pressure
other individuals; making misrepresentations to the U.S. Trustee’s
Office; and appearing before the Bankruptcy Court to personally deliver
additional misrepresentations to the Court.”
They
complained to Gibney that, “Over the course of a four-year period, the
defendant designed and executed a multi-step and multifaceted scheme to
defraud the LFG Liquidation Trust of as much money as possible ...
diverting the bulk of those siphoned-off or embezzled funds into bank
accounts that he controlled; transferring some to his associates; and
directing the remainder to his law firm to settle a personal debt.
“The
defendant used different methods to complete his draining of the Trust
account — embezzling some funds by re-directing checks intended for the
Trust, drawing duplicative payments from the Trust, and depleting the
Trust’s wind down budget with payments to himself and others,” the U.S.
attorney’s office wrote.
Investigation also uncovered an
unrelated case of Matson embezzling $23,000 in 2016 from the estate of
Forefront Capital, a defunct futures broker for which he served as
receiver and debtor-designee, the government said.
Matson’s
lawyers said that from 2015 to 2019, when LeClairRyan failed, Matson’s
life was under a great deal of personal and professional turmoil and
that he acknowledges and accepts responsibility for all he has done.
“Despite
significant wrongdoing, Mr. Matson did not use the money to fund a
lavish lifestyle. He promptly repaid the bulk of the funds and has since
worked with the government and the successor trustee to ensure full
payment of all remaining restitution,” they wrote.
In
asking for a 37-month sentence, his lawyers told Gibney that Matson
“has had a tremendous fall from grace. He was once a successful, widely
respected bankruptcy attorney of more than 30 years. He was an elder and
leader of his church and was deeply involved in the community.
“At
the age of 64, this matter represents his first and only contact with
the criminal justice system and he has led an otherwise law-abiding
life. He has been disbarred and has tarnished his once-stellar
reputation in the community,” they said. “He stands before the Court not
only humiliated and ashamed but with steadfast contrition.”
Alex Murdaugh, the embattled South Carolina attorney at the center of multiple investigations
following the deaths of his wife and son in June, was ordered held
without bond pending a psychiatric evaluation as he faces charges
related to mishandling funds in a former housekeeper's wrongful death
lawsuit.
"There is no amount of bond that the
court can set that can safely provide protection to Mr. Murdaugh, to the
community," Judge Clifton Newman said during Tuesday a hearing.
Murdaugh
faces two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses tied
to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the sons of his former housekeeper,
Gloria Satterfield. The lawyer was arrested last week in Orlando after his release from a drug rehabilitation center.
Prosecutors
argued Murdaugh duped Satterfield's family when he arranged settlement
payments from the wrongful death lawsuit to be paid to a bank account he
controlled under the guise of a legitimate company. They also argued
the lawyer presented a danger to himself and others following his
alleged scheme to arrange his murder last month in order for an
insurance payout to be made to his son.
The two new charges Murdaugh faces represent "the
tip of the iceberg," said Creighton Waters, a prosecutor for the state
attorney general office. More will be revealed as the investigations
around Murdaugh continue, Waters said.
Newman
said he was not considering a personal recognizance bond for Murdaugh
after prosecutors and attorneys for Satterfield's family made their case
the lawyer had violated the family's trust.
Murdaugh had for years been a staple in the South
Carolina legal community and had recently completed a drug
rehabilitation program for an opioid addiction that fueled his
misconduct, Murdaugh's defense attorneys said.
Murdaugh
arranged for at least two payments – one for nearly $3 million and the
other for more than $400,0000 – to be made to an account he set up to
look like a legitimate settlement planning company after an attorney he
recommended to the Satterfield family reached a settlement in their
mother's wrongful death lawsuit without their knowledge, according to
affidavits from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Waters mentioned at least one other check worth $118,000 Murdaugh misappropriated and suggested other crimes may have occurred.
"We
have never seen such a breach of trust: a man who stole money from the
very family of the housekeeper that helped raise his kids," added
Satterfield family attorney Eric Bland.
Satterfield
died after falling at Murdaugh's home in February 2018, which state
police have said they are also investigating. Satterfield's death was
ruled due to "natural" causes at the time, but the Hampton County
coroner recently wrote a letter to the South Carolina Law Enforcement
Division urging it to open an investigation because her death was not
reported at the time and an autopsy was not performed.
Murdaugh
told the Satterfield family to hire attorney Cory Fleming to represent
them, arrest affidavits say. Murdaugh was a defendant in the family's
lawsuit, but directed the family to hire Fleming, a close friend to
Murdaugh, prosecutors allege.
Satterfield's
sons, Michael "Tony" Satterfield and Brian Harriott, are also suing
Murdaugh over the wrongful death settlement funds. The brothers said
they were never paid "a dime," according to court documents filed earlier this month.
Each
charge of obtaining property by false pretenses could bring up to a 10
year prison sentence for Murdaugh. His attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said
last week Murdaugh has accepted he will likely spend some time in prison
from the various charges he faces.
In a stunning turn of events, a South Carolina man was charged with
assisted suicide and insurance fraud in connection with the shooting of
troubled attorney Alex Murdaugh three months after the deaths of his
wife and son.
Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was also charged with
distribution of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana, the South
Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced on Tuesday.
Police did not say how Smith and Murdaugh know each other, but Murdaugh has already admitted to having a drug problem.
Murdaugh,
53, is the scion of a powerful legal dynasty and was a partner in the
firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick, which was founded by
his great-grandfather.
In 2019, the clan—which controlled the
local prosecutor’s office for decades—was thrust into the headlines when
Murdaugh’s son Paul was charged with a drunken boating accident that
killed a young woman.
Then in June, Alex Murdaugh discovered Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his
mother Maggie, 52, shot to death near the dog kennels of the family’s
sprawling hunting estate.
As the double homicide remained unsolved, Alex Murdaugh’s life appears to have spiraled out of control.
Two weeks ago, he called 911 from a country road to report that he had been shot in the head, reportedly while changing a tire. The circumstances were shrouded in confusion—and then things got even murkier.
Murdaugh suddenly announced that he was entering rehab for drug
addiction and resigning from his law firm, saying that he had made “a
lot of decisions that I truly regret.”
That intriguing statement
was then followed by the firm’s announcement that Murdaugh was under
investigation for allegedly misappropriating funds—a matter that state
police are also now probing.
HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – An attorney for Alex Murdaugh — the
disbarred South Carolina lawyer whose wife and son were killed just
three months ago — was ousted from his family law firm after
misappropriating company funds, Murdaugh’s attorney says.
Murdaugh’s removal from the law firm came just days before he was
shot in the head while changing a tire. The attorney says that Murdaugh
“is accepting full responsibility for his conduct.”
Murdaugh’s attorney said that “Alex is deeply sorry for his
actions,” and plans to pay back all of the monies he misappropriated,
which was confirmed to be in the millions.
Murdaugh previously issued an apology for a series of recent mistakes
and announced that he plans to enter rehab, which his brother Randy
indicated was for a drug problem.
Murdaugh said that his recent behavior was exacerbated by the June 7
murders of his wife and son, who were found shot to death at a family
hunting lodge.
On Saturday, Alex Murdaugh told police someone shot at him as he
changed a tire on the side of a rural road. A family attorney has
suggested someone cut the tire before Murdaugh left.
The attorney also said that Murdaugh “hopes that his conduct does not
distract from law enforcement’s efforts to find who murdered his wife
Maggie and son Paul.”
A disbarred California lawyer can’t use a bankruptcy to discharge
more than $2 million in debt that is owed to a fund used to reimburse
his former clients, a federal bankruptcy judge has ruled.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ernest M. Robles of Los Angeles ruled against former lawyer Anthony Joseph Kassas in a June 14 opinion.
The State Bar of California’s Client Security Fund had made more than
$1.3 million in payments to 356 of Kassas’ former clients. With
interest and processing costs, Kassas owes the state bar more than $2
million.
Kassas was disbarred in 2014 partly for misconduct in representation of financially distressed homeowners.
According to Robles, Kassas falsely stated in advertising that he had
filed litigation against various banks. He then collected fees ranging
from $1,500 to $4,500 to help the homeowners obtain loan modifications
but “failed to competently perform the promised legal services,” Robles
said.
The state bar conceded that Kassas could discharge the more than
$200,000 in restitution payments ordered by the California Supreme
Court. And Kassas agreed that he could not discharge assessed
disciplinary costs.
But the parties disagreed on whether the security fund debt could be
discharged. California argued that the debt is a fine, penalty or
forfeiture payable to a governmental unit that can’t be discharged.
Kassas maintained that the debt can be erased because the state bar is
acting as a conduit to reimburse third parties.
Other bankruptcy courts have held that client security fund debt
can’t be discharged based on the premise that attorney reimbursement is
rehabilitative and not compensatory.
“The court finds the reasoning of these cases to be persuasive,” Robles wrote.
Robles certified a direct appeal of his decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco.
Hat tip to Bloomberg Law, which had coverage of the decision.
A disbarred Brooklyn lawyer helped his ex-con pal fleece her friends out of half a million dollars, prosecutors said Thursday.
Gerald Douglas pretended to represent Helen Lurene Elias in a
multimillion dollar lawsuit during meetings with five victims, the
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said.
The partners in crime convinced Elias’s friends to lend her $300,000
until her bogus legal settlement came in, prosecutors said.
Elias, 55, allegedly finagled a total of $544,000 out of 10 of her
well-meaning buddies and promised to repay them double or triple what
they gave her.
Gerald Douglas, 52, in Brooklyn Supreme Court. (Noah Goldberg/New York Daily News)
When pressed by the victims about getting paid back, Elias and Douglas, 52, made up excuses and never refunded the people.
The duo are charged with scheme to defraud and and grand larceny and
Elias is also charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Elias was ordered held on $100,000 bail at her arraignment Monday,
Douglas pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal
Court Thursday. Elias was ordered held on $100,000 bail at her
arraignment Monday.
She spent more than a year in prison for a similar scam that she ran
from 2010 to 2013, where she bilked 10 friends out of $300,000. In that
case, she claimed she had to clear liens before collecting a
multimillion dollar inheritance.
She was convicted of scheme to defraud and grand larceny.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A disbarred lawyer who had offices in three major North Carolina cities has pleaded guilty to charges that he embezzled about $100,000 from clients.
The Winston-Salem Journal reported that 47-year-old Devin Ferree Thomas of Charlotte entered the plea I nWinston-Salem on Monday to six counts of embezzlement.
Thomas had been a personal injury lawyer with offices in Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Raleigh. Forsyth Superior Court Judge David Hall ruled that Thomas must serve 10 days in jail, as well as 50 hours of community service and five years of supervised probation.
Thomas has paid $100,000 in restitution to the North Carolina State Bar, which distributed the money to those from whom Thomas took the money.
He is also subject to random drug tests and searches and seizures without a warrant.
