Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Client Security Fund Coughs Up $573K To Swindled Victims As Lawyer Who Used Trust Account As Personal Piggy Bank Gets Carted Off For 5 1/2 To 18-Year Prison Stay; Federal Sentencing For Failure To Pay Income Tax On Pilfered Loot Remains Pending

In Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, PennLive.com reports:

• Though the Carlisle attorney who pleaded guilty to bilking numerous clients to feed a gambling addiction won't be sentenced until [Wednesday, August 17], more than $500,000 has already been reimbursed to his victims.
  
  That makes up most of the client funds that Karl Rominger, 43, was charged with misusing.(1) The reimbursed funds have come from a state program that protects clients from such thefts.
  
  ***
  Rominger also pleaded guilty last month in federal court to tax-evasion charges.
  
  Meanwhile, Carlisle-based attorney and president of the Cumberland County Bar Association Hubert Gilroy said the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security has reimbursed much of the $767,000-plus that Rominger owes in restitution.(2)
  
  And some local attorneys, including Gilroy, have been working to make sure the victims get the money they are owed in this complex case that took intense forensic-accounting to unravel.
  
  "A number of attorneys in Cumberland County have stepped up and worked with a number of these victims to help them make applications to the client security fund, and we're doing that on a pro bono basis. We're not charging them anything," Gilroy said. "We police our own profession and take care of these victims as soon as possible."
  
  So far, the fund has paid out $573,783.06 to Rominger's victims, said the fund's executive director, Kathryn Peifer Morgan.
  
  The organization is funded through a portion of the annual licensing fee attorneys pay, she explained. Disbarred or suspended attorneys whose former clients are paid back through the fund must reimburse the fund – plus 10 percent interest – before they can be considered for reinstatement, she added.

Source: Most of client funds stolen by ex-Sandusky lawyer Karl Rominger reimbursed to victims through state program.

See also, 'I'm ashamed,' ex-Sandusky lawyer Karl Rominger says as he gets state prison for stealing $767K:

• A far more humble, even tearful Rominger stood before a judge in a Cumberland County courtroom Wednesday afternoon and received a 5 1/2- to 18-year state prison sentence for stealing more than $767,000 from his clients. [...] That damage was mitigated only partially by payments from the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security that made some of the 18 victims financially whole, [prosecutor Jaime] Keating said.
  
  ***
  Keating called several victims to make impact statements. Natasha Humphreys-Alamo, told how Rominger diverted an insurance settlement her hard-pressed family was to receive from an auto accident.
  
  "That insurance settlement was all we had," she said. Rominger betrayed her not only as an attorney, but as a friend, Humphreys-Alamo said. Like Keating, she said she believes high living as much as gambling caused the thefts.
  
  ***
  Chuck Wingate, Bethesda Mission [for the homeless] executive director, said Rominger's thefts from the estate cost the charity $75,000 to $100,000 in income, forcing it to deplete its reserves to meet an ever-growing need.
  
  "Our clients and guests are the most vulnerable people in town," he said. "As Christians, we have forgiven Mr. Rominger. But we do know that actions have consequences."

--------------------

(1) Included in the pilfered loot was $147,883 representing the proceeds from the sale of a divorcing couple's marital home. See Former Sandusky lawyer Karl Rominger's plea to stealing client funds heals one marriage.

(2) The Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security was established by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1982 to reimburse clients who have suffered a loss as a result of a misappropriation of funds by their Pennsylvania attorney.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that attempt to clean up 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 a listing for Canadian client protection 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.