State Supremes Disbar Illinois Attorney Facing Criminal Charges For Allegedly Glomming Over $2 Million Of His Clients' Money; Dementia-Suffering Senior, Dead Client's Estate Among Unwitting Victims; Suspicious Bank Investigator Blows Whistle, Triggers Probe

In DuPage County, Illinois, the Daily Herald reports:

• A Wheaton attorney facing criminal charges for stealing more than $2 million from his clients has been disbarred.
  
  The Illinois Supreme Court and the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission orders released Thursday [September 23] state that Robert Beck, licensed in 1995, was disbarred because he "intentionally misappropriated funds in excess of $700,000 from two elderly clients, one of whom suffered from dementia, and an additional $189,500 from the estate of a third client following that client's death."(1)
  
  In his criminal case, Beck, 49, [...], is accused of bilking the estates of four former and three current clients of $1 million from July 2011 through January 2015. He is free on $250,000 bail.
  
  Prosecutors have alleged Beck would steal money from a client's trust for the estate and use that money for personal and business expenses. He would then steal money from another client's trust for the estate and use that money to pay back the estate of his previous victims.
  
  Beck also is accused of shifting roughly $1.3 million among the trusts using one to pay the heirs of another to cover up the thefts.
  
  Beck's alleged scheme came to light when a bank investigator became suspicious of the transactions.

Source: Wheaton attorney facing theft charges is disbarred.

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(1) The Client Protection Program of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) was established by the Supreme Court of Illinois to provide reimbursement to clients who have lost money or property because of dishonest conduct by lawyers admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois. The Program reimburses clients who cannot get reimbursement from the lawyers who caused their losses, or from other sources such as insurance. (But see Stolen Inheritances: I-Team lawyer warning, in which one Illinois victim said of the program, "Their rules are vague, ambiguous and they are applied at their own discretion, and you can't get a straight answer[.]")

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 (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.