Summary: In the course of almost a decade, a lawyer stole $1.6 million from seven clients.
To pay his gambling debts, a Louisville lawyer stole $1.6 million from seven of his estate clients, and on Tuesday, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
David Cary Ford, 53, pled guilty to money laundering and wire fraud. Courier Journal reports that the attorney had been stealing from estates he was supposed to manage for almost a decade. Money that should have gone to charities went to his pocket, allegedly to feed his gambling problem.
Ford was the executor of several estates, and that gave him the power to pay their expenses. That meant he could easily dip in and withdraw their cash, which he did, before he greedily spent their money like it was his.
Ford’s lawyer Patrick Renn asked for leniency, saying that the $1.6 million he stole was only “a little bit of money” over time. Renn cited that Ford never went full on baller and bought a car or a boat, and that he was penniless at the time of sentencing. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Snyder said that the law did not allow reductions because the defendant had an addiction.
Snyder added that “a whole lot of people were hurt,” and he asked for a sentence of five years and three months in prison.
Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. said that Ford was “basically a good man” but his addiction caused him to hurt people. He found it especially abhorrent that he used his position as an attorney to abuse his clients’ trust.
McKinley imposed a sentence that was less than what Synder requested, and he also ordered Ford to pay restitution. Renn said that it was unlikely Ford had the money to pay back what he owed.
Before the sentencing, Ford worked for his family’s law firm Ford Klapeke & Meyer for almost 30 years. One of the firm’s major clients was the Archdiocese of Louisville.
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Source: Courier Journal
Photo courtesy of Portugal Resident