Oklahoma Attorney Gets 30 Months in Prison

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Summary: A former attorney from Norman, Oklahoma will get 30 months for defrauding his clients of thousands of dollars and failing to file a tax return.

A former Norman, Oklahoma attorney will spend 30 months in federal prison for embezzling money from clients. Dane Thomas Wilson, 61, was convicted of embezzling from his clients and failing to file a tax return. U.S. District Judge Timothy D. DeGuisti sentenced him to 30 months.

  

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Wilson used a wire fraud scheme to embezzle money from clients. He pleaded guilty nearly a year ago to misappropriating funds received on his clients’ behalf from insurance companies and other payers between 2010 and 2011.

He would then deposit the money received into client trust accounts but write checks to himself, make case withdrawals and transfer money in amounts that exceeded the fees he was supposed to receive as their attorney. Wilson admitted that some clients received less or none of the money they were supposed to receive.

The Oklahoma Bar Association awarded payments to his former clients out of their Clients’ Security Fund. One client, Ruby Frame, was awarded $80,000 even though Wilson took $125,000 she was supposed to receive from a car accident. The payment she was been awarded will help her make bills since the death of her husband. Her husband was a veteran so he was receiving VA disability payments and both of their Social Security payments. After his death, her income was cut by 75 percent.

The OBA is paying out $176,000 this year and has given out over $2.7 million since the fund was created. The funds are generated with annual bar dues. Wilson’s clients have received over $325,000 in the past five years.

Wilson is still awaiting a hearing to determine how much he must repay the IRS and his former clients.

Do you think he should be required to work any kind of job so that his debts to his clients and any others can be paid? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about lawyers that defraud their clients, read these articles:

• Las Vegas Attorney Going to Prison after Stealing from Clients
• Man Arrested for Posing as a Harvard Lawyer, Frauding Clients
• Lawyer Accused of Stealing $600,000 from Elderly Clients

Photo: flickr.com