The National Law Journal by Amanda Bronstad - December 22, 2010
A California lawyer who was arrested on charges that he embezzled $117,000 from a widow he represented in a trust matter has agreed to be disbarred. Redmond Peter McAneny of Newport Beach, Calif., was arrested on Dec. 13 by investigators from the Orange County, Calif., District Attorney's office and charged with one felony count of grand theft by embezzlement. He faces up to four years in state prison if convicted. In a stipulation reached on Dec. 20 with the State Bar of California, McAneny admitted that he misappropriated the funds he was holding for Deborah Slaybaugh, whom he represented in 2007 and 2008 in a case regarding her deceased husband's life insurance policy. Instead of depositing settlement money into a client trust account, McAneny wrote checks to himself against the funds during the last six months of 2008. McAneny did not return a call for comment. According to the stipulation, McAneny's law practice was suffering from "severe financial stress" at the time he took the money. "The general hard economic times for lawyers resulted in Respondent having a number of significant and uncollectable accounts receivable," the stipulation says. "At the same time, his financial obligations both to his own wife, son and daughter, and the other attorneys he shared an office with, stayed the same or increased." Under the stipulation agreement, McAneny admitted to three acts of professional misconduct: misappropriation, failure to maintain client funds in trust and failure to promptly pay a client the funds to which she was entitled. The State Bar of California is moving to take over McAneny's practice and freeze his accounts, and McAneny has agreed to pay restitution to Slaybaugh. McAneny, who was admitted to practice law in California in 1977, was suspended in 1993 for 90 days and put on one year of probation after admitting that he deposited $15,000 in client funds into his own personal bank account. He repaid the client $19,500, which includes interest.
If there was a better system of oversight, like constant monitoring and questioning of escrow funds, then these bad events would happen much less. Seems to me that the banks gets a wrongful free pass over the criminal actions involving trust accounts.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a better system of oversight, like constant monitoring and questioning of escrow funds, then these bad events would happen much less. Seems to me that the banks gets a wrongful free pass over the criminal actions involving trust accounts.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a better system of oversight, like constant monitoring and questioning of escrow funds, then these bad events would happen much less. Seems to me that the banks gets a wrongful free pass over the criminal actions involving trust accounts.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a better system of oversight, like constant monitoring and questioning of escrow funds, then these bad events would happen much less. Seems to me that the banks gets a wrongful free pass over the criminal actions involving trust accounts.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a better system of oversight, like constant monitoring and questioning of escrow funds, then these bad events would happen much less. Seems to me that the banks gets a wrongful free pass over the criminal actions involving trust accounts.
ReplyDeleteWonder if he would agree to go to jail? What is this a joke? This whore should be in jail now!
ReplyDeleteHis wife and law cronies need money? Throw her and the cronies in jail also. Gee, a new defense: I steal because I need money to give to others. It's not the banks, it's the crooked lawyers who control the money in and out of the accounts. Triple jail time and a seizing of all assets for these "officers of the court," is a beginning. In the innermost circle in Hell surrounding Hitler, Judas, Stalin, and other notables are a huge number of lawyers and other low-lifes who betrayed their trust.
ReplyDeleteA license to practice law is just a licence to steal.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone else would do this, they would be in jail.
Stealing from a Widow! That is a 'high crime' for which the punishment should be dealth by hanging. At the vulnerable time in a person life, the dealth of a spouse the lawyers steal their money! They all have the 'Fagen' gene that Dickens wrote about.
ReplyDeleteThis man was actually MY lawyer! My case is still pending, and he has my money, and I cannot get it back as his accounts have been seized! Now I need a new lawyer, with no money to get one, because this crook took my money also!
ReplyDeletenyc atty sidney davidoff has been stealing and ripping off clients for a long time..It is time we bring him to justice and locked him into an orange prison suit..Im looking for those cheated clients to join me.
ReplyDeleteplease contact me at gmiabeach@yahoo.com
money wont satisfy me.
He must go to prison
The majority of lawyers are crooks! I live in Indiana and I hired a lawyer to represent me in a civil matter on a investment of $10,000 I did with a man who had a auto wholesale business. He claimed he lost his business. I filed a complaint in Superior court because I could not afford an attorney at that time. It sat there for years until I finally had the money to hire an attorney. I found out later it was investment fraud! Last year, my lawyer was disbarred right when he was due to get a judgement against this man. I gave him $1,300.00. I wrote a Client Services fund in Indianapolis, In and pleaded my case to them to get my money back so I could hire another attorney to continue my civil case. It took them 6 months to reply and tell me that they would not give me my money back...and you can't appeal the decision! Because of the length of time it took for them to deny me, my case went past the statue of limitations; therefore, ruining my case! I have since contacted two attorney's for someone to be accountable for what happened to me. It wasn't my fault my attorney got disbarred, and then, my case ruined because those idiots took too long to give me an answer! I contacted the man who owes me the money and all he does is come up with excuses why he can't pay my money back! He got away with fraud. Where is the justice? It seems the lawyers and the justice system are sticking together and not being accountable for not doing their jobs! This is a travesty. There is no protection for the victims....only protection for fraudulent business practices!
ReplyDeleteIf there was a better system of oversight, like constant monitoring and questioning of escrow funds, then these bad events would happen much less. Seems to me that the banks gets a wrongful free pass over the criminal actions involving trust accounts.
ReplyDelete