State sues TV’s ‘tax lady’ for alleged swindles
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

A Sacramento County attorney who bills herself as the “tax lady,” appearing in nationwide television ads offering to help people with tax problems, was sued Monday for $34 million by state Attorney General Jerry Brown for allegedly swindling thousands of people.

Instead of reducing clients’ tax bills, Roni Deutch put people deeper in debt by placing them “in an endless loop of requests” for duplicate documents that resulted in higher fees and penalties from the Internal Revenue Service, and by falsely billing them for services she never rendered, Brown said.

His lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, claims that Deutch made misleading representations and engaged in unfair competition while victimizing thousands of people in California and elsewhere.

An attorney for Deutch did not respond to a request for comment.

Deutch operates a law firm in North Highlands (Sacramento County) that employs 160 people and generates about $25 million a year in revenue while spending $3 million annually on TV and radio ads, the suit said.

Brown said Deutch operates a high-pressure “boiler room” in which sales agents who cannot meet her law firm’s monthly goals are fired. “She screams at and berates sales agents who are not performing adequately,” the suit said.

Sales agents who meet or exceed quotas receive “lavish bonuses and incentives,” including all-expenses-paid trips to Hawaii and Las Vegas, Brown said in court papers.

“Deutch is engaged in a heartless scheme that swindled people with tax problems,” Brown said. “She promises to significantly reduce their IRS tax debts, but instead preys on their vulnerability, taking large up-front payments but providing little or no help in lowering their tax bills.”

Deutch has faced similar allegations before.

In 2006, she agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs that claimed she had misled consumers with TV commercials promising settlements of back-tax problems “for only $20″ or “without paying anything to the IRS.”

Deutch, a graduate of UC Berkeley and Western State University College of Law, has no public record of discipline in California, records show. She was admitted to the State Bar in 1991.

Read more: San Francisco Chronicle

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Would You Wear This To Work?

By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel

A lawyer who committed more than 50 ethical violations in 13 cases in his short career had his license to practice revoked Friday.

Michael C. Trudgeon, (Marquette, ‘03), had been suspended from practice since 2008 for failing to report compliance with continuing legal education requirements and failing to cooperate with an Office of Lawyer Regulation investigation.

Trudgeon, 43, lives in Wauwatosa but had his practice in Beloit, according to records.

In 2009, he received a public reprimand, and the OLR filed the latest complaint. Of the 56 counts, Trudgeon admitted some and pleaded no contest to others, according to the Supreme Court’s order.

The order shows Trudgeon continued practicing after his suspension, tried to bargain away a client’s obligation to pay child support, and asserted he represented someone when he didn’t.

Additionally, a referee found, Trudgeon:

failed to maintain confidentiality of files which he had left unsecured. Additional misconduct included the lack of diligence in client matters, failing to communicate with clients, failing to refund an unearned fee, trust account violations, engaging in an ex-parte communication with the court, and making a false statement to a tribunal.

Lastly, he failed to show for a jury trial and kept nearly $25,000 of a settlement for a client in a car accident case.

The court ordered Trudgeon to pay nearly $32,000 in costs and restitution.

By Diana Hefley
Herald Writer

A former Lynnwood attorney was arrested Wednesday night after he was caught allegedly smuggling heroin to inmates in the Snohomish County Jail, according to court papers filed this morning.

Patrick J. Mullen, 63, allegedly told detectives that he’d become addicted to prescription pain killers several years ago after undergoing hip surgery. Mullen said that more recently he’d become addicted to heroin, according to a police affidavit. Mullen said that he agreed to smuggle heroin to inmates and in return he kept a portion of the drugs for his personal use.

Mullen resigned as an attorney in March in lieu of being disbarred, according to the Washington Bar Association. He was first admitted to the bar in 1976 and practiced criminal defense and civil litigation.

The bar association had learned that Mullen in 2006 had taken more than $5,000 from a client in a child custody case but failed to do any work or communicate with the client. After a year, the client fired Mullen and the lawyer agreed to pay the client back $4,190. Mullen has never repaid the client, according to the bar association.

His resignation was based on “conduct involving failure to communicate, trust account irregularities, and dishonesty.”

Despite his resignation as an attorney, Mullen continued to meet with inmates at the jail and identified himself as a lawyer, according to police. Records show that Mullen visited several inmates every five to six days from mid-May through July. Sometimes he would have back-to-back visits.

Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force detectives were tipped off in July by a confidential source who had heard that an attorney was smuggling in drugs. On Wednesday, investigators learned that Mullen was planning to return to the jail, reportedly carrying heroin.

Mullen showed up and identified himself as an attorney and filled out a visitation form. He was escorted to the visitation room to wait for his client to be brought down from the detention area. That’s when police moved in and made the arrest.

A small balloon believed filled with heroin was found in his jacket, according to the police affidavit.

Mullen explained to investigators that initially an inmate had asked him if he could bring in drugs to the jail. Mullen told police he was hesitant at first and started by bringing in chewing tobacco.

Over time, the former lawyer said he started smuggling in heroin. He said associates of the inmates would meet him and provide the drug. He said he kept some for his personal use and then would deliver the rest during attorney-client visits at the jail, the detective wrote.

Mullen told investigators that he’d also smuggled heroin to an inmate on Tuesday at the Whatcom County Jail. That inmate had been transferred from Snohomish County Jail.

Mullen was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of introducing contraband and possession with intent to deliver. He is expected to appear this afternoon in Everett District Court.

Attorneys must provide identification to jail staff and are screened for weapons or other contraband, said Jeff Miller, a chief with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office oversees the jail.

Sheriff’s officials said today that they don’t receive notification when an attorney is disbarred or is forced to resign. In light of yesterday’s arrest, they plan to review the process to see if there is a way to work with the bar association to get notice in the future, Miller said.

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By Mike Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

A suspended lawyer awaiting sentencing in federal court for bank fraud for bilking millions from a trust account has been charged with robbing the Town Bank branch in Wales on June 12.

Peter T. Elliott, 62, of Summit is accused of taking $9,516 during the robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

In a separate case, Elliott is charged in Waukesha County with possession of a firearm in a school zone and carrying a concealed weapon.

According to criminal complaints filed against him, Elliott was arrested July 22 by a sheriff’s deputy who had responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot at Kettle Moraine High School in Wales.

The deputy saw Elliott in the car and believed there was a “strong possibility” Elliott was involved in the robbery, court documents state. Elliott looked like the suspect in bank photographs taken on the day of the robbery and Elliott’s vehicle matched the description of the car the robber used, records state.

The deputy searched Elliott’s vehicle and found a silver handgun in a pouch on the back of the passenger side front seat, according to the complaint.

During questioning by authorities, Elliott allegedly admitted robbing the bank but said he did not have a gun with him during the heist.

Two bank employees, though, told investigators that Elliott said he had a gun during the robbery, which occurred minutes after noon June 12 at the bank branch on Summit Ave. in Wales.

After taking the money, he told them to lie down and the floor and count to 500, the complaint says. One of the tellers told investigators that Elliott said, “I have an accomplice watching you from the parking lot. If you try anything, we’ll both be back.”

Elliott told investigators robbing the bank was “quite easy” and that he used $2,600 of the money to get his daughter’s vehicle out of hock, the complaint says. He used the rest of the money to pay past due utility bills and for living expenses, the complaint says.

He also told detectives that he had a federal criminal case pending for stealing $2.5 million from a trust account, the complaint says.

In the federal case, Elliott has pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25. He faces a maximum prison term of 30 years. Three other bank fraud counts filed against him are expected to be dismissed at sentencing as part of a plea bargain.

He was charged in July 2009 in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.

According to the four-page charging document, Elliott became a lawyer in 1974 and, as part of his practice, maintained an Interest on Lawyers Trust Account at Associated Bank. That is an account in which an attorney holds funds for clients. The funds can be used only by or on behalf of the client.

In the late 1990s, Elliott began to occasionally use the trust account for personal purposes, the document says. Over 10 years, Elliott diverted about $2.5 million out of the trust funds for himself, according to the document, which does not say how the money was spent.

To cover his withdrawals, Elliott operated a check-kiting scheme in which he would write checks from his personal Wells Fargo account and deposit them into the trust account at Associated Bank, the document says.

Elliott would withdraw money out of the trust account for himself and then stop payment on his personal Wells Fargo check, the document says.

In four weeks in fall 2008, Elliott deposited and stopped payment on 57 checks totaling $35 million, according to the document. However, Elliott is suspected only of taking $2.5 million for himself.

Elliott’s law license was suspended in January by the state Supreme Court after he refused to participate in an investigation by the Office of Lawyer Regulation, according to documents.

In the Waukesha County cases, Elliott appeared in court on Wednesday and asked for a court-appointed attorney. He is scheduled to appear in court again on Aug. 16.

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Police: Arrested Longwood lawyer sent taunting texts to former client
By Jeff Weiner and Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel

A Longwood lawyer arrested on charges of burglarizing the home of a former client taunted his victim with several text messages threatening “all out war,” according to a Lake Mary police report released Friday.

Albert E. Ford II, 43, who specializes in environmental and land-use issues, and Kasee Singh, who has owned realty, development and title companies, were locked in a dispute over fees, documents show.

Singh filed a complaint in April with The Florida Bar. The group on July 13 informed Singh that his complaint was being dismissed because Ford’s fees were not excessive or fraudulent. The Bar told Singh he was free to sue Ford if he wanted to pursue the matter.

Messages left for Singh were not returned. Ford’s attorney could not be immediately reached.

Among the Bar documents released Friday was a Feb. 25 e-mail to Ford from Singh demanding payment and stating that his “former friend” owed more than $20,000.

“Well, you, sir, have proven to be a no good liar and I will be compensated for my work one way or another,” Ford wrote, adding he would win a lawsuit against Singh so “the entire community knows what a sleazy, no good, deceitful jerk that you are.”

Ford remained in the Seminole County Jail late Friday on charges of armed burglary to a dwelling, grand theft, burglary to an occupied dwelling and damaging property-criminal mischief.

Police say Ford is the man shown on security video burglarizing Singh’s Lake Mary house Wednesday. He was arrested Thursday at his home, also in Lake Mary.

The armed burglary charge apparently was lodged after Singh told police that he found ammunition and gun parts near his garage. They were taken into evidence.

Singh told officers he arrived home from work to find damage to his house and pool. He also showed police several messages in which Ford offered a “last warning” and referred to Singh as a “weak puppy,” the police report shows.

“I declare all out war against you,” wrote Ford in the first message, received by Singh at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to the report. “I warned you against trying to go after my livelihood. This is your last warning.”

In two other messages in the report received minutes after the incident, Ford asks Singh, “Why are you so weak” and taunts, “What’s up weak puppy.”

Video and still photos released by police show a man driving up to Singh’s house in a black pickup at 5:19 p.m. Wednesday, going to the front door, then walking around back and entering a pool enclosure.

Police say Ford broke the front doorbell, kicked a concrete bench into the pool and removed a pool tank and filter and canister on the side of the house near the pool. The filter and canister were found nearby.

In the video, the man, who was accompanied by a black dog — possibly a Labrador retriever — jiggles a large American flag in front of the house till it dislodges from its holder. He tosses the flag into the bed of his truck along with the tank and filter, then drives off with the dog in the pickup bed, too.

Singh showed police three .380-caliber rounds and pieces of a gun he said he found near his garage along with broken glass from a shattered light, the report says. Before he was arrested, the report states, assistants at Ford’s law firm told authorities that Ford often carried a gun.

Ford graduated from Tulane University Law School in 1995 and was admitted to The Florida Bar the same year. The Bar website has no record of discipline against him during the past 10 years.

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St. Louis Park attorney arrested in sex sting
By ANTHONY LONETREE

A St. Louis Park attorney is scheduled to appear in Hennepin County District Court Tuesday — accused of trying to arrange through an escort service to pay for sex with an underage girl.

But the escort service operator turned out to be a police informant and the “15-year-old” with whom the attorney was to have sex with last Friday was an undercover officer, according to a complaint filed Monday against Ian Laurie, 42.

Laurie, who lives in Maple Grove and who as an attorney specializes in employment law, is charged with the attempted solicitation of a child to engage in sexual conduct, a felony.

According to the complaint:

The informant told police last Thursday that Laurie had contacted him repeatedly over the past few months, “asking him to find a juvenile female for him to have sex with.” He added that he’d offered to set up Laurie with an 18-year-old, but that Laurie declined, saying the girl should be under 16.

Last Thursday, the informant contacted Laurie, saying that he had located a 15-year-old female, and that for a $185 fee, Laurie could have “full sex service.” But the escort service operator had found no such girl, and immediately after the two spoke, he called police.

On Friday, Laurie and the informant agreed to a reduced price of $100 after Laurie indicated that $185 “might be a problem.” During the subsequent meeting with the undercover officer, Laurie asked if she was 15, and after she said she was, he left but said he’d return in 10 minutes — hoping that by then the escort service operator would show up, too.

Instead, officers found Laurie at his office, and they arrested him, the complaint said. Bail was set at $75,000.

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Disbarred Attorney Sentenced to Federal Prison for Defrauding Elderly Clients
Defendant Diverted Over $4.3 Million of Clients’ Trust Money for His Own Use
July 7, 2010

ATLANTA—M. DEWEY BAIN, 59, of Sugar Hill, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. to serve over five years in federal prison for defrauding his clients of over $4.3 million in trust funds that he had misrepresented were in safe investments earning good returns but which in fact he had stolen.

United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of the case, “This defendant, an attorney formerly licensed in Georgia and Texas, entered into trust agreements with elderly victims, told them that he was placing their money in safe investments, and then lost it all—over $4.3 million in retirement savings and inheritance money—after diverting it to his own personal and business use. His shameful abuse of trust has now landed him in federal prison.”

Reginald G. Moore, United States Secret Service Special Agent in Charge, said, “The Secret Service takes an aggressive approach to the prevention and investigation of con artists who prey upon innocent victims by promising future large financial gain for a small initial investment. This case demonstrates the wide-reaching effects of bogus financial and real estate schemes, the impact on innocent victims, and the importance of cooperation among our law enforcement partners.”

BAIN was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $4,354,000 in restitution to his victims. BAIN pleaded guilty to the charge of wire fraud on April 6, 2010. BAIN was disbarred in Georgia in October 2009.

According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: Between May 2006 and March 2009, BAIN, an attorney formerly licensed in Georgia and Texas, stole over $4.3 million of his clients’ money based on a fraudulent trust scheme. He entered into trust agreements with the defrauded clients, many of whom were elderly, and agreed to act as their financial advisor and invest their retirement savings and inheritances in safe accounts, such as certificates of deposit and loans to third parties that were allegedly secured by real estate and other valuable property. During the scheme, however, BAIN diverted their money to pay for his own personal expenses and, without their permission, used it to support his business interests. His business, “DnC Multimedia Corp.,” formerly known as “PlanetLink Communications, Inc.,” later filed for bankruptcy. Through early 2009, BAIN falsely assured his victims that their trust accounts were earning good interest based on the investments, when in fact the accounts had no value by at least February 2009.

As an example, under one of the trust agreements, BAIN originally invested the money of an elderly victim in certificates of deposit and paid her personal expenses out of the trust. He later liquidated the certificates based on false pretenses and moved the money to a bank account in his name. He then used the money in his business, even though she had specifically refused to permit such an investment because it was too risky. He also wrote checks off of her credit card account without her authorization. As the result of BAIN’s fraud, this victim lost nearly $1 million and was no longer able to pay for her assisted living residence. She traveled from another state with family and addressed the court at today’s sentencing.

This case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service and by detectives with the Topeka, Kansas Police Department, with the assistance of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Kansas. The case was referred for criminal prosecution by the Office of the U.S. Trustee in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as by the Atlanta Division Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Assistant United States Attorney Stephen H. McClain prosecuted the case.

For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney’s Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.justice.gov/usao/gan.

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An attorney who groped the breast and buttocks of his opposing counsel at a downtown Portland office party pleaded guilty to harassment and was ordered to write an apology letter.

A judge also sentenced Jack Levy to two years of probation, to stay away from his victim and attend a class about “gender issues” and professionalism. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jean Maurer told the 42-year-old that his behavior was “offensive and degrading.”

“To say I’m disheartened would understate it considerably,” Maurer said during Friday’s hearing.

Levy admitted committing a Class A misdemeanor for subjecting the woman to “offensive physical conduct” by touching intimate parts of her body. Levy’s sentence is typical for someone with no criminal history.

The victim, a construction-defect attorney, complained to the Oregon State Bar and later to Portland police about the incidents that unfolded March 4, during a 10th anniversary party for the Aldrich law office, another firm that takes on construction-defect cases. The woman said Levy, a partner at Smith Freed & Eberhard PC, started making sexually charged comments about her within earshot. She left the room, only to have Levy “firmly grab my butt” in the hallway, she wrote in a complaint.

The woman told Levy she was sure her husband wouldn’t appreciate that, then continued walking. A while later, the woman said Levy walked across a room toward her, suddenly hugged her. His hand “moved up to grab my breast from underneath. I was appalled and jumped.”

Levy followed up by asking her crude questions about what sexual activity she might engage in with her husband that night, she wrote.

The bar is investigating Levy’s actions. If he is found to have committed misconduct, he could face a public reprimand, suspension or disbarment.

In a letter this week, Levy’s attorney, Wayne Mackeson, said his client’s behavior was “crude and boorish” but doesn’t warrant professional disciplinary action. Mackeson also said that Levy didn’t intend to gain an unfair advantage in the dispute he and the woman were working on.

The woman has said she believed Levy groped her as a “strategic maneuver” to unsettle her in the case. At the time of the complaint, the woman was the attorney for property owners in a case seeking $4.3 million in damages, plus attorney fees and costs, against a developer represented by Levy.

During Friday’s hearing, the woman sat silently next to her husband as prosecutor Don Rees read aloud a five-page letter she’d written. She said she’d gotten little sleep the night of the incident as her mind replayed the events. “Even though intellectually I knew I had done nothing to encourage his conduct, I still felt ashamed.”

The next morning, as she prepared herself to confront Levy at a pre-scheduled meeting, her “stomach was in knots” and her body shook. She said she reported Levy to the bar and later police even though she feared doing so.

“I worried that if I reported the crime, people wouldn’t believe me, would blame me, would think less of me, and that my career would be ruined,” she wrote. “I worried that if I didn’t report the crime, he would do this to other women, that he would be further emboldened in the future, that he would continue to try to bully me, that others would see me as weak.”

Mackeson said his client intended to learn from his actions.

Then Levy, wearing a navy suit and speaking in a soft voice, apologized.

“I was wrong in my conduct,” he said Friday. “I deeply regret it and don’t want to cause any more embarrassment for (the woman) or her family.”

Credit:
Aimee Green, The Oregonian
Portland attorney convicted of groping another attorney
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In the original story, the Oregon State Bar “initially declined the complaint but revived it after the complainant alerted police. The bar will examine Levy’s fitness as a lawyer considering the alleged criminal assault, and if Levy used intimidation to gain an advantage in a pending case, state bar records show.”

Hmmm. Why did they decline the complaint in the first place?

Lawyer disbarred for misuse of client funds
Posted by Jane Friedmann @StarTribune.com

The Minnesota Supreme Court disbarred a lawyer who had used at least $750 in client funds to buy illegal drugs.
From March 2006 to January 2007, Juan Jesus Rodriguez worked for Centro Legal Inc., a St. Paul-based organization that provides low-cost legal services. Rodriguez told clients they owed more than their contracts stated and he diverted payments to himself. His license to practice law was suspended in 2008 by the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility.

The order disbarring Rodriguez, a Minnesota attorney since 1995, was signed by Justice Alan Page. Justice Paul Anderson wrote a dissenting opinion stating that Rodriguez contacted the court, admitted his misconduct, described himself as a “devoted member of Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous,” and accepted “with gratitude the consequences of [his] addictive behavior.”
Anderson said indefinite suspension would have protected the public as effectively as disbarment and might have provided Rodriguez incentive to recover.

Read the Minnesota Supreme Court order.

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Attorney disbarred following conviction
— From staff reports at Enewscourier.com

Athens attorney John Hamilton McLain V, 51, has been disbarred from practicing law in Alabama following his conviction last year of sexually abusing two girls, ages 12 and 13, in 2008.

McLain previously was a certified public accountant and later practiced law in downtown Athens.

The disbarment order from the Supreme Court of Alabama, based on a ruling from the Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama State Bar, was sent Thursday to The News Courier to be published as a paid legal notice. It states the disbarment was effective May 27.

McLain was convicted Feb. 12, 2009, and later sentenced in Madison County Circuit Court on two counts of enticing a child, two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of second-degree unlawful imprisonment.

Lawyers with the Attorney General’s Office presented evidence during a four-day trial in February 2009 showing McLain picked up the girls as they were walking to the Madison Square Mall without their parents’ knowledge on the night of July 3, 2008. He drove them around Huntsville in his sports car and then to Monte Sano Mountain, where he traced the ring connecting the cups of one girl’s swimsuit, the girls testified. He then drove them to his house in Athens, kept them overnight, touched the breast of one girl, invited the two to join him in the shower and to sleep in his bed, then walked nude in front of them, the girls testified.

The State Supreme Court upheld the conviction in March.

Madison County Circuit Judge Jim Smith sentenced McLain to a total of 20 years on two felony counts, one for each victim. The judge split the sentences so McLain would have to serve a total of six years in prison followed by 14 years on probation. He also was sentenced to a year and three months on misdemeanor counts involving the two children. The sentences on the misdemeanor counts run at the same time as the 20-year felony sentence.

McLain is serving the sentence in Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery.