Georgia Attorney Gets Five Years In Theft Of $600K+; Client Home Sale Proceeds Included In Pilfered Loot

In Fayetteville, Georgia, The Citizen reports:

• A Fayetteville attorney who bilked his clients of more than $647,000 was sentenced [] to five years in prison and an additional 25 years probation. Howard Geoffrey “Geoff” Slade Sr., 62, pled guilty to all 12 counts he was charged with, all but two being theft by taking while acting in a fiduciary capacity. The remaining two were theft by taking charges.

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• In the wake of the money Slade admitted to pilfering was at least one broken marriage; another wife who felt guilt for not trusting her husband’s request to get her money from Slade because she trusted him; and more. [...] One of the victims was an invalid woman who was supposed to receive half of the proceeds from a house sold as part of an estate. The victim never got that money.

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• One of the victims, who was owed more than $289,000 from proceeds of a real estate transaction, said she tried for months on end to get Slade to repay her. One time he gave her a check with insufficient funds. Then came a laundry list of excuses, including that he would pay $25,000 at one time, $50,000 at another. He offered to give the victim his share of a beachside condominium. Lastly, he offered to make the victim a beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

For more, see Attorney gets 5 years for bilking clients (Geoff Slade Sr. admits to taking $647,000 from client funds).