Attorney Scores 'Get Out Of Jail Free' Card After Admitting To $70K+ Theft While Acting As Fiduciary; Allowed To Walk In Exchange For Probation, 'Payback' Promise

In Braxton County, West Virginia, The West Virginia Record reports:

• A Braxton County attorney will remain a free man after admitting to embezzling nearly $75,000 from a trust account he was appointed to oversee.
  
  Thomas J. Drake on Sept. 13 was indicted via information on a single charge of embezzlement. According to the indictment, Drake converted $70,798.57 belonging to the ATS Settlement Trust between July 2009 and August 2011.
  
  No details are provided about the trust, and when Drake was made its trustee. The only other information available is that Drake’s embezzlement of the funds took place in Elkview.
  
  In exchange for agreeing to plead guilty, Assistant Kanawha County Prosecutor Rob Schulenburg offered to recommend Drake get probation for a term to be determined by Judge James C. Stucky. Also, as a condition of his probation, Drake was to make court-ordered restitution.(1)
  
  As of presstime, Stucky’s sentencing order was not available. According to his attorney William C. Forbes, Stucky placed Drake on two years probation.

For the story, see Braxton attorney gets probation for embezzlement.

(1) The victim may be able to look to the West Virginia State Bar's Lawyers Fund for Client Protection,  which was established to reimburse clients who have suffered a loss due to misappropriation or embezzle­ment by a West Virginia-licensed attorney, for a source of recovery of the pilfered cash if the defendant stiffs it on its restitution promise.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that sometimes help cover the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (now includes Canadian recovery funds, courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

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