Check Kiting With Escrow Account Draws Disbarment

The Indiana Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney on stipulated facts

Respondent currently is under an order of interim suspension arising from his September 2021 conviction for check deception. Matter of Thomas, 177 N.E.3d 433 (Ind. 2021). This criminal conduct also forms the basis for the disciplinary complaint filed by the Commission in this case. During an approximately three-week span in early 2020, Respondent wrote several checks from his trust account to his operating account and vice versa as part of a check kiting scheme that left his trust account overdrawn. Soon thereafter, Respondent received and deposited into his overdrawn trust account a $6,000 equalization payment owing to a client in a marital dissolution case, which reduced the negative balance but still left the account overdrawn. The $6,000 had not been paid to the client by the time the account was closed, but instead served to reduce the loss written off by the bank when it closed the account.

The parties further stipulate that the Commission is investigating several additional matters involving Respondent. In connection with one of these investigations, Respondent admits he fraudulently created a document purporting to be an order granting a sentence modification to a client and forged the presiding judge’s signature on that document. The parties indicate that other pending investigations also involve allegations of fraudulent documents, and the parties agree these matters make disbarment an appropriate sanction.

(Mike Frisch)