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Ex-Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Stealing From Clients
New York Law Journal
November 01, 2007
A disbarred lawyer pleaded guilty Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court to stealing $148,000 from at least 20 clients.
The ex-lawyer, Richard Boter, has agreed to a sentence of at least one year in prison and to pay $160,000 in restitution and forfeiture, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Boter was the 12th attorney to be netted by the office's probe into the use of runners by personal injury lawyers to bribe hospital employees to gain access to potential clients. Boter had purchased cases from various runners, at least one of whom had bribed hospital employees to gain confidential information about patients, who were often being treated for injuries sustained in automobile accidents, according to the district attorney. To date, the 12 lawyers caught in the investigation have agreed to pay restitution or forfeiture of $1.7 million.
With regard to Boter, who was disbarred last month, the district attorney's office said he had stolen client funds by keeping their share of settlement proceeds. He was able to do that by settling cases without his clients' permission and then forging their signatures on release forms forwarded to insurance companies to obtain the release of the settlement funds, the office said.
