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Paralegal Charged With Stealing Funds From One Law Firm to Pay Restitution to Another
The Legal Intelligencer
May 19, 2009
The Montgomery County district attorney's office announced Monday that a former paralegal of Norristown, Pa.-based firm High Swartz was arrested for allegedly stealing more than $100,000 from the firm and using the money to pay restitution in a case where she has been found guilty of stealing $285,000 from a New York law firm.
According to a press release from the Montgomery County district attorney's office, Kathy Foer-Morse has been arrested for allegedly writing 12 unauthorized checks to herself totaling $100,937.32, which were then deposited into her personal bank account. The press release said Foer-Morse was fired from High Swartz May 1 because of issues with her attitude and work performance.
A subsequent internal audit of the estate accounts she handled at the firm revealed the alleged theft, which was then reported to the Montgomery County district attorney's office and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, the press release said.
According to the press release, county detectives discovered Foer-Morse was free on bail and awaiting sentencing in New York City for the theft of $285,000 from Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke.
A search warrant of Foer-Morse's bank accounts revealed that the money she allegedly stole from High Swartz was being used to pay restitution to Satterlee Stephens, the press release said.
Paul Baker Bartle, managing partner of High Swartz, said he let Foer-Morse go on a Friday, and the firm began routine audits of her estate accounts on either Monday or Tuesday of the following week.
By Thursday, he said, it was discovered that a check for almost $60,000 was deposited in Foer-Morse's account using the forged signature of the estate executor.
According to Bartle, the discovery of the rest of the stolen money was made shortly thereafter and he immediately notified county authorities.
Bartle said it was soon discovered that the amount of money stolen from his firm "dovetailed exactly" with the payments Foer-Morse was making to Satterlee Stephens.
Bartle said he has "not yet" been in touch with the New York firm but vowed that all of the missing money would be repaid to his firm's clients.
"We will make all of our clients whole, either through insurance, restitution, a lawsuit or our own pockets," he said.
Bartle said the firm found Foer-Morse through a recruiter but that he blames only himself for ultimately hiring her.
"We misjudged this person," he said, but admitted that he did not have all the facts when he hired her.
Bartle said he thinks the firm may end up filing some lawsuits as a result of the ordeal but declined to say who the targets might be.
Bartle said the firm "will make some internal changes" to prevent something like this from happening again.
"It might not stop it in the future but it's going to make it a lot tougher to steal money from us," he said, but conceded that "to try to outwit the criminal mind is a difficult practice."
Bartle said Foer-Morse would have been caught eventually anyway when she submitted her accounting summaries for the estates she was handling.
The sad thing, he said, was that the firm didn't catch her before she allegedly took the money.
Bartle said that short of asking for a new hire's Social Security number before hiring them, it would be difficult to sniff out a criminal before they struck.
"Foer-Morse" was one of several aliases, he said.
"I feel violated, I feel like our clients were violated, it was a violation of our law firm colleagues and of the trust of our clients," he said.
On Friday, according to the press release, Magisterial District Judge Margaret Hunsicker arraigned Foer-Morse and set her bail at $99,000 straight bail, with a preliminary hearing currently scheduled for 11 a.m. May 26.
According to the press release, the case will be prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Robert J. Sander, captain of the Economic Crime Unit.
