Indiana Attorney Cuffed & 'Frog-Marched' To Prison For 5+ Years After Ripping Off 100+ Victims In Client Trust Account Swindle

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Journal Gazette reports:

• After a two-hour hearing that clearly aggravated the judge, the prosecutor and nearly every other attorney in the room, former attorney Daniel Serban was handcuffed and led off to begin a 5 1/2 -year prison sentence.

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• Serban’s sentence, which includes 5 1/2 years of probation and a restitution order of more than $280,000, came after an April admission that he had been stealing money from his clients’ trust fund accounts.

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• According to court documents, there were more than 100 victims in the case and more than 600 instances of “racketeering activity.”
• In one instance, according to testimony and court documents, a woman was seen crying in the hallway outside his office because she had paid her utility bill, which had been turned over to collection with Serban. Because he did not pass the money on to the utility, the woman’s water had been shut off.
• In another situation, Serban forged the name of the personal representative of an estate to take money from the estate to pay back some of the other money he had taken. Two attorneys testified to having used Serban’s firm to handle collection work for them, only to have the cases mishandled and left in a state of disarray.

For more, see Lawyer’s thefts lead to prison.

(1) The Clients’ Financial Assistance Fund ["CFAF"] of the Indiana State Bar Association provides compensation, as a matter of grace, and not as a right, to qualified applicants who have suffered a monetary loss as a result of dishonest acts of an Indiana lawyer, acting either as a lawyer or as a fiduciary. No client or member of the public shall have any right in the Fund as a third-party beneficiary or otherwise; instead any award from the Fund depends upon the sole discretion of the ISBA, according to its rules and regulations. This Fund, which exists because of the voluntary contributions of the members of ISBA, recognizes that the lawyers of Indiana as a whole desire to help those who fall victim to the few lawyers who are dishonest.

Please review the Rules of Procedure prior to filling out the application. There are certain guidelines that must be adhered to. The Rules of Procedure should help you determine if you qualify for CFAF assistance.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that sometimes help cover the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (now includes Canadian recovery funds, courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.