In San Antonio today, a federal judge sentenced former San
Antonio lawyer Todd Prins to six years in federal prison for a $2.4 Million
fraud scheme, announced United States Attorney John F. Bash and FBI Special
Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division.
In addition to the prison term, Senior United States
District Judge David A. Ezra ordered that the 52-year-old Prins pay $2,975,264
restitution and be placed on supervised release for a period of three years
after completing his prison term. Judge
Ezra allowed Prins to remain on bond pending Bureau of Prisons facility
designation. On June 28, 2017, Prins
pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
By pleading guilty, Prins admitted that from August 16, 2013, to
December 22, 2016, he defrauded multiple victims of their money by means of
false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.
“Ordinary Texans often put their trust in lawyers to help
them navigate complex legal disputes.
When a lawyer abuses that trust for personal gain, it undermines the
integrity of our legal system. The
misconduct in this case was simply outrageous, and the six-year sentence was
amply deserved,” stated United States Attorney Bash.
According to court records, Prins led clients to believe
that a lawsuit Prins filed on their behalf was successful, resulting in a
judgment in their favor. To convince his
clients, Prins fraudulently created forged court rulings, opinions and orders,
purportedly issued by various state and federal courts bearing the signatures
of the respective judges. Those courts
included Bexar County District Court, the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals, the
Texas Supreme Court, United States District Court for the Western District of
Texas, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Seventh
Circuits.
Furthermore, Prins caused an entity which had purchased real
estate in a foreclosure sale conducted by Prins’ law firm to wire transfer
approximately $2,400,000 to Prins’ law firm’s trust account. Rather than maintaining those funds in his
trust account for proper distribution, Prins caused approximately $2,000,000 of
that money to be wire transferred to another bank account he controlled. During October and November 2016, Prins
misappropriated and converted to his own use approximately $800,000 of the
$2,400,000. Prins, having improperly
transferred the $2,000,000 from his trust account to his other account, falsely
told a principal of his client-seller that the purchaser’s $2,400,000 was still
in his trust account. To support that
false claim, Prins fraudulently created and sent by e-mails and text messages
what appeared to be screen shots of the trust account showing the balance in
the trust account to be in excess of $3,000,000. In fact, the true balance of the trust account
was less than $1,000, having been $2,041.17 prior to the receipt of the
$2,400,000.
The FBI conducted this investigation. Assistant United States Attorney William R.
Harris prosecuted this case on behalf of the Government.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment