Texas Lawyer Steals ~$200k In Trust Funds From Client
Quick tutorial on how to not take care of your clients.
If you’re lawyering up after a divorce, be very cautious of who represents you. You don’t want them divorcing you from your hard-earned money. Not just overcharging — literally shrugging after you ask them where the money from selling your house went. From Fox affiliate KETK:
A Tyler lawyer was arrested on Friday and is accused of transferring more than $200,000 out of a trust account meant for his client.
According to his arrest warrant, Bruce Bain, 56, was hired in September 2022 as a divorce attorney for a client and was paid a $5,000 retainer fee that same day. The client told police, according to the warrant, that $235,551.44 from the sale of her home was put into a trust account set up by Bain.
“She advised that when the divorce was finalized the money was no longer in the trust account,” the warrant said. “[She] advised that she spoke with Bain about this, and he told her that he had spent the money.”
He spent the what?! You blow through over $200k of someone else’s cash and that’s the best explanation you have? Given that a grand jury subpoena showed that transfers were made from the trust to Bain’s law office’s checking and savings account, any recent fancy renovations to his office should be suspect.
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After Bain was arrested, he was let go on $500 bond. The assumption is that he went home and not back to work — pretty hard to maintain a small firm with a “He stole $230k from me” Yelp review hanging over you.
Tyler Lawyer Arrested On Theft Charges, Accused Of Taking More Than $200,000 From Client [KETK]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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