Possible Attorney Fraud Causes Two Lawyers To Skip Town

In two unrelated cases, media outlets have reported the following stories.

The Island Packet (South Carolina) reports:

• "A Beaufort attorney, who police say stole $2.4 million from a client, was found [last week] trying to cross the Canadian border back into the United States after being the focus of an 18-hour Coast Guard search, according to authorities. Michael Timothy Jordan, 45, whose real estate law office is in Professional Village Circle on Lady’s Island, was arrested today on a felony breach of trust charge filed with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, according to a release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

For more, see Missing attorney arrested at Canadian border (Police say Michael Timothy Jordan stole $2.4 million from a client).

See also, Missing Boater Found On Canadian Border, Charged With Fraud (WCIV-TV Channel 4, Charleston, SC).

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Law.com reports on the story of Connecticut attorney Jonathan Hoyt, who has reportedly skipped town and has been missing for about four weeks after writing a confession letter to his son, also an attorney working in the Hoyt law office, admitting to embezzling funds from the firm's clients. According to the story, the following is an excerpt from the confession letter:

• "I have embezzled funds from my clients. Like most lawyers who fall into this trap I always did it with the idea that I would repay the funds, but of course once I started down this slippery slope there was nothing but failure waiting for me at the end."

Reportedly, the letter is dated July 7, one day after attorney Jonathan Hoyt, 58, was last seen in The Hoyt Law Group's Clinton, Connecticut office, according to police. For more, see Missing Lawyer Admits Embezzlement in Confessional Letter.

For story update on Jonathan Hoyt, see Missing lawyer found dead in Iowa (Jonathan Hoyt, the once-respected lawyer who vanished in July after embezzling some $700,000 from his clients, has been found dead in a rented room in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, police report) (New Haven Register, 10-31-07).