Charge It!

An Illinois Hearing Board recommends a three year suspension and until further order on stipulated facts

From January 2016 until February 2020, Respondent was employed as in-house counsel with Professional National Title Network (“PNTN”), which provides a variety of services to businesses and attorneys, primarily acting as a title agent in real estate transactions. In the course of his employment, Respondent was given access to PNTN’s corporate American Express credit card (“the American Express card”). On certain occasions, in the course of his employment,

Respondent was authorized by PNTN to use the American Express card for payment of expenses such as corporate filing fees with the Illinois Secretary of State, membership fees in professional associations, and registration fees for certain conferences and meetings. (Ans. at pars. 1-2; Joint Stips. at par. 1).

Prior to February 2019, Respondent established merchant accounts with Square, Inc. (“Square”) and Intuit, Inc. (“Intuit”). These accounts, which linked to Respondent’s personal checking account at JPMorgan Chase Bank, allowed Respondent to accept payments via credit card. Funds from these payments, less a processing fee, would be deposited directly into Respondent’s personal checking account. (Ans. at par. 4; Joint Stips. at par. 2).

Between February 21, 2019 and January 16, 2020, using the merchant accounts he established through Square and Intuit, Respondent used the American Express card to charge funds to himself on at least 90 separate occasions. During that time period, Respondent charged at least $136,745.79 to himself using the American Express card. (Ans. at pars. 5-6; Joint Stips. at par. 3).

At no time did Respondent have permission or authority to use the American Express card for these transactions. (Joint Stips. at pars. 4-5). At the time Respondent made these charges, he knew that he was not authorized to do so. (Ans. at par. 10).

PNTN discovered the improper charges in late January 2020. When confronted about the charges, Respondent initially told his supervisors at PNTN that he only used the American Express card for legitimate business reasons, such as registering for continuing legal education courses. This statement was false, as none of the charges that Respondent made to himself were authorized or used for legitimate business reasons. Shortly thereafter, in early February 2020, PNTN terminated Respondent’s employment. (Ans. at par. 11; Joint Stips. at par. 6).

(Mike Frisch)