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Oh Yes She Did: Paralegal Steals Client's Home Equity

By Lynne DeVenny

There's not a whole lot to this story, besides the "what the hell?" angle. Earlier this week, a Connecticut paralegal entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court to an embezzlement charge. Stacey Williams admitted that when a client changed his mind about taking out a home equity loan, she went ahead and borrowed over $123,000 against his house anyway.

Over a five-month period in 2008, Williams used the client's home equity funds for her "personal benefit." Now she's facing up to 30 years in prison. I wonder what she thinks of the personal benefit now.

Williams also got busted in a seriously big way:

This investigation was conducted by the Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force, notably the U.S. Secret Service and the Greenwich Police Department. The Task Force also includes members of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security; the Connecticut State Police; and the Glastonbury, Hartford, New Haven and Shelton Police Departments.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rahul Kale.

One fact in the story, "Williams...accepted $149,824 into the firm's Connecticut bank account," makes you wonder if inadequate supervision was an issue sin this case. Surely, you'd notice an extra $150k in one of your business accounts.

Surely?

Source:  Patch.com

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on March 11, 2011 (boomark / email).