Texas Attorney Admits To Playing Fast & Loose With $2.4 Million In Client Cash (Ultimately Stealing $800K Of It), & Forging Documents Purporting To Be Favorable Court Rulings To Support Billings In Separate Cases

In San Antonio, Texas, the Texas Lawyer reports:

• A former San Antonio lawyer has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after federal investigators alleged he created fake Texas court rulings to dupe a pair of clients into believing he'd won their case and converted some of another client's $2.4 million trust fund for his own personal use.(1)
  
  Todd Prins plead guilty to a single count of wire fraud before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo on June 28. Prins­—who resigned his law license March 7 in lieu of discipline, according to the State Bar of Texas—will be sentenced before Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra on Sept. 18.
  
  According to his June 7 indictment, Prins represented two plaintiffs in civil litigation but placed the case in abatement without their knowledge. Prins later told the clients he'd been successful in their case. To prove it, he emailed them forged rulings from a Bexar County District Court, the Texas Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, complete with faked signatures of various judges, the indictment alleges.
  
  Prins later sent invoices for his legal services to the clients, billing them for winning the fake rulings. Prins later filed for personal bankruptcy and issued the clients a $1.6 million promissory note, which he falsely claimed to be settlement proceeds from their lawsuit, it adds.
  
  Separately, Prins is alleged to have deposited $2.4 million intended for a real estate foreclosure sale into a client's Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA). But Prins later shifted $2 million of that money into his own law office account­—$800,000 of which he converted for his own personal use, the indictment alleges.
  
  Prins then emailed and texted parties in the real estate transaction what appeared to be a screenshot of IOLTA account, showing a balance of over $3 million, when in reality it contained only $1,000, according to the indictment.

Source: Former San Antonio Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Scamming Clients With Fake Court Rulings. (may require subscription; if no subscription, TRY HERE, then click the appropriate link for the story).

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(1) For links to "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that will sometimes reimburse clients victimized by losses caused by the dishonest conduct of their lawyers, 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. ripoff reimbursement