Crime, Law Schools

The Dan Markel Case: A Helping Hand For Katherine Magbanua -- From A Relative Accused Of Embezzlement?

Katherine Magbanua's lawyers deny any connection between who's paying her legal fees and the embezzlement charges against her sister-in-law.

By  
on

Samantha Chez-Magbanua (Broward County Jail)

Readers who have been following the Dan Markel murder case know about the mystery surrounding who’s been paying the legal fees of Katherine Magbanua, one of the defendants accused in Professor Markel’s July 2014 murder. Katie Magbanua’s lawyers, Tara Kawass and Christopher DeCoste, claim that she’s been receiving financial help from her family on this front.

Could this include assistance from a sister-in-law — or sister outlaw, if law enforcement allegations are true? The Tallahassee Democrat reports:

Tallahassee detectives are investigating whether Dan Markel murder suspect Katherine Magbanua’s legal fees were being paid, at least in part, by her sister-in-law.

Samantha Chez-Magbanua, who is married to Katherine Magbanua’s brother, was arrested in March in South Florida on charges of embezzling $1.19 million from her employer. She faces charges of grand theft of over $100,000 after her arrest by the Plantation Police Department.

Well over $100,000, according to the police:

For 26 years, Samantha Magbanua worked for Quintana, Lopez, Donoghue & Gonzalez, a Plantation certified public accounting firm. Last September, the owners of the firm became suspicious that she had been stealing money from them when they noticed their general business account had been nearly depleted of funds over several years.

They “noticed hundreds of thousands of dollars had been wired out of the account by Samantha without their permission,” Plantation Police wrote in their report.

In all, 62 wire transfers by Samantha Magbanua were sent to a Miami spiritual healer, Caridad Herrera Cabello, totaling $611,230.

Surprising. One would expect a bunch of accountants to be more on top of their financial affairs.

Sponsored

And one can see why the police are wondering whether some of this money might have been diverted to Katie Magbanua’s legal defense. Six hundred grand seems like an awful lot to pay for spiritual healing.

But establishing a link between Samantha Magbanua’s alleged embezzlement and Katherine Magbanua’s legal fees could be challenging. As noted by prosecutor Georgia Cappleman, “it’s going to be hard to prove” — especially in the face of denials by Katie Magbanua’s lawyers.

“I can understand the due diligence and doing the investigation, but their suspicions are once again going to be wrong,” said Christopher DeCoste. “This utter fixation on who is paying the legal fees lets me know how desperate they are right now.”

Meanwhile, it’s hard to believe that more than four years have passed since Dan Markel’s murder. Orin Snyder of Gibson Dunn, attorney for Danny’s parents, Ruth and Phil Markel, shared this statement with us earlier this month:

Four years ago, on July 18, 2014, Dan was brutally assassinated in his driveway in the prime of his life. On the anniversary of this tragedy, Dan’s parents, Ruth and Phil Markel, remain in agony. Their only son was stolen from them. They have since been denied any relationship with Dan’s two young boys, their beloved grandsons — an unimaginable cruelty. Despite these tragedies, the Markels are hopeful that the coming year will see all those responsible for Dan’s murder apprehended and brought to justice.

Sponsored

The trial of Katherine Magbanua and her alleged co-conspirator, Sigfredo Garcia, is scheduled for October 8. Whether additional arrests are made in the case remains to be seen.

Embezzlement arrest of Magbanua’s in-law being investigated for ties to Dan Markel case [Tallahassee Democrat]
Dan Markel’s parents hoping for more arrests four years after his murder [Tallahassee Democrat]

DBL square headshotDavid Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

Topics

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,