No Reinstatement For Convicted Former Attorney

An Illinois Hearing Committee recommends that reinstatement be denied to a disbarred former attorney.

He had consented to disbarment in 1986.

The committee’s summary

In May 1985, Petitioner was found guilty in the  United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on 17 counts  of an indictment in U.S. v. Wheadon, No. 84-30029. The conduct resulting  in his convictions occurred in 1981 and 1982, while he was the Executive  Director of the East St. Louis Housing Authority and responsible for the  construction and renovation of low income housing projects financed by the U.S.  Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD. The crimes for which Petitioner  was convicted included conspiracy to defraud HUD; corruptly soliciting,  demanding, and receiving money from a person in return for Petitioner approving  payments of HUD funds to that person for work Petitioner knew had not been  performed; embezzling, stealing and knowingly converting to his own use $370,000  in HUD funds by receiving twenty separate payments over a one-year period; and  knowingly filing false tax returns for 1981 and 1982 by not reporting as income  the foregoing funds. Based upon his federal convictions, Petitioner filed a  motion to strike his name from the roll of attorneys licensed to practice law in  Illinois. The Supreme Court allowed the motion on December 5, 1986.

After discussing the factors set out in Supreme  Court Rule 767(f), the Hearing Board found that Petitioner failed to make a  sufficient showing that he should be reinstated to the practice of law, and  recommended that the Petition for Reinstatement be denied.

Petitioner failed to disclose in his reinstatement application tax liens, a civil case, a criminal conviction and the revocation of his professional engineers license. (Mike Frisch)