Paralegal takes plea in $600K law firm client theft; feds say he spent $550K on coin collection
A trusted paralegal accused of embezzling nearly $600,000 from 41 clients of a Georgia law firm over a period of about five years pleaded guilty Tuesday after representing himself at trial for two days in federal court.
Criminally charged with 253 counts, including bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft, Richard Owen now faces a potential prison term of as much as 50 years, his former boss, attorney Victor Hawk, told the Augusta Chronicle after Owen acknowledged his guilt.
While working at the personal injury firm in Augusta between 2007 and 2012, Owen wrote checks to clients from settlement funds, as he was authorized to do, but then forged their signatures on checks and deposited the funds into his personal account, prosecutor Jennifer Solari said in court on Monday. By the time the thefts were discovered, she said, Owen had spent $550,000 on collectible coins.
Associate attorney Melissa Detchemendy testified that Owen’s calls came to her after he left the law firm in 2012, and there were multiple complaints that medical bills Owen was supposed to have paid hadn’t been paid. When she and Hawk went to look at bank records, they were gone. Duplicate copies eventually showed purported client signatures, in Owen’s handwriting, on the reverse side of checks written to clients and deposited into his account, Detchemendy said.
The recent articles don’t explain whether clients were made whole, but Hawk told the Augusta Chronicle in 2013 that insurance and his personal funds would cover all losses.
The articles don’t include any comment from Owen.
Hat tip: Atlanta Business Chronicle
