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Legal Assistant and Lawyer Indicted for Stealing Millions from Vets

By Lynne DeVenny

The My Fox Houston headline reads, "Elderly Couple Steals $2M From Vets."

That gave me pause in itself, because in most news stories, elderly couples are the victims.

But my heart absolutely sank as I read the story and learned that a lawyer, the sole practitioner of a small guardianship practice, and his wife, a legal assistant and the office manager, have been indicted by a grand jury for conspiring to steal more than $2 million dollars from mentally incompetent veterans.

According to the Texas Attorney General's office, Joe Phillips, a 71-year old attorney and former employee of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, was the legal guardian for these veterans, responsible for maintaining their financial affairs. He was supposed "to operate and maintain the bank accounts of the veterans to receive payments from the VA and SSA for ordinary and customary living expenses."

Instead, Phillips and his wife, Dorothy, 70, are accused of transferring the veterans' funds into his personal account over a five-year period from 2003 through 2008.

They are also accused of lying to the veterans about how much money they had in their accounts and failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax receipts.

The U.S. Attorney's Office news release ends with the statement, "Joe Phillips no longer serves as a fiduciary for any of his former military veteran clients."

The Phillips have yet to have their day in court. But it will be a sad one if the final verdict is that two legal professionals took advantage of the most vulnerable of prey, the mentally incompetent.

Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office - Southern District of Texas; myfoxhouston.com

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on June 30, 2010 (boomark / email).