Connecticut Feds Catch Up With Sleazy Ex-Lawyer, Bagging Him For Allegedly Swiping $900K+ From Clients In Connection w/ Real Estate Deals; Defendant Recently Responded To Three Grievance Complaints By 'Voluntarily' Relinquishing Law License & Moving To Michigan In Lieu Of Bar Boot

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (New Haven, Connecticut):

• Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today [April 7] announced that THOMAS M. MURTHA, 61, of Newtown, has been charged by a federal criminal complaint with wire fraud related to his alleged theft of more than $900,000 from victims.
  
  MURTHA was arrested on April 5, 2017, in Michigan. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia T. Morris in Bay City, Michigan, and was released on a $10,000 bond.
  
  As alleged in the criminal complaint, MURTHA operated a law practice under the name Maher & Murtha LLC in Bridgeport. Beginning in approximately August 2015, MURTHA defrauded five victims of a total of more than $900,000. As part of the scheme, MURTHA made materially false statements to induce one victim to invest more than $600,000, purportedly for real estate investments. He also was retained to handle real estate transactions on behalf of other victims and, instead of remitting funds to the appropriate parties, converted the funds to his own use.(1)
  
  The complaint further alleges, in December 2015, MURTHA told the victim of his real estate investment scheme that he needed an additional $100,000 to purchase a $1.5 million commercial property in Bethel, and that a buyer would purchase the property in four to six months to convert it to condominiums. After the victim wired the money, MURTHA used the funds in connection with the purchase, in his own name, of a $725,000 house in Birmingham, Michigan.
  
  In September 2016, MURTHA resigned from the bar after three grievance complaints were filed against him.

Source: Attorney Charged with Defrauding Clients.

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(1) In Connecticut, the Client Security Fund is a fund established by the rules of the Connecticut Superior Court to provide reimbursement to individuals who have lost money or property as a result of the dishonest conduct of an attorney practicing law in the State of Connecticut, in the course of the attorney-client relationship. The fund provides a remedy for clients who are unable to obtain reimbursement for their loss from any other source.

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 (February 2017) (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.