Disbarred Lawyer Gets 5 Years In $600K Client Ripoff; Bar Examiner: Attorney Used Trust Account As His "Piggy Bank"

In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:

• A lawyer who was raised by one of Palm Beach County's most respected attorneys but is the biological son of one of its most notorious murderers was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for bilking clients out of more than $600,000.
• Without any show of emotion, A. Clark Cone, 56, pleaded guilty to grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. He was fingerprinted and taken into custody immediately.

***

• While Cone's wife left the courtroom in tears, one of his victims said he had no sympathy. "We put all our trust in Mr. Cone," said Anthony DePrizio, who flew in from Boston to tell Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp how Cone's dishonesty prolonged the agony of a Riviera Beach car accident that nearly cost his wife her life. Instead of helping him and his wife recover money they needed for her care, he stole it. Cone's prison sentence offered him little comfort.
• "I don't care if he serves one day. I just want my money," DePrizio said. Although ordered to make restitution, Cone appears to have no means to repay his clients.(1) He has been disbarred. His $540,000 home is in foreclosure. He was represented by a public defender.
• He took a $500,000 settlement he negotiated for the DePrizios in 2005, prosecutors said. He kept $100,000 he received in 2006 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a Miramar man who lost his wife in a plane crash. He also kept $38,940 awarded a Boca Raton woman he represented in a slip-and-fall case.
• But the extent of his misdeeds are unknown. A paralegal who worked for him said many people, including a couple who claimed their son suffered neurological damage because he was misdiagnosed at two local medical centers, lost their ability to recover money because Cone failed to file court papers on time.
• Further, an examiner for the Florida Bar, who audited Cone's books, reported that he didn't keep records to show whose money he kept in his trust accounts. It was clear that Cone used the accounts as a piggy bank, the examiner said.

For the story, see Attorney A. Clark Cone sentenced to 5 years for bilking law clients (Son of a notorious murderer is sentenced to five years in prison for bilking clients out of more than $600,000).

(1) The Florida Bar's Clients' Security Fund compensates people who have been victims of of misappropriation or embezzlement of cash or property by a Florida-licensed attorney. For those ripped off by dishonest attorneys in other states and Canada, see:

• United States: Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• United States: Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Canada: Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.