Now-Disbarred Bay State Lawyer Cops Plea To Pilfering $900K From Dead Clients; Used Some Proceeds From One Ripoff To Pay Victims Of Another

From the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General:

• A now-disbarred attorney has pleaded guilty in connection with stealing a total of nearly $900,000 dollars from an estate she represented, a beneficiary of that estate whose funds were in a trust she managed, and an elderly client, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office announced today.
  
  Maureen F. Pomeroy, age 46, of Bedford, pleaded guilty on Monday in Middlesex Superior Court to charges of Larceny over $250 from a Person 60 or Older (2 counts), Larceny over $250, and Embezzlement by Fiduciary. After the plea was entered, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kimberly Budd scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 11, 2013.
  
  In May 2010, the AG’s Office began an investigation into Pomeroy’s activities after receiving a complaint from one of her former clients. During the time she practiced as an attorney, Pomeroy specialized in real estate and estate planning, and would routinely draft wills or other financial documents for her clients.
  
  According to authorities, one of Pomeroy’s clients was an 85-year-old man who had retained her services to prepare a will and other estate planning documents for him, and to assist him in obtaining funds from several bank accounts. Authorities allege that from July 2008 through October 2008, Pomeroy stole over $810,000 from this client. Pomeroy used these funds for her personal benefit and used some of the elderly client’s funds to repay two clients from whom she had earlier misappropriated money.
  
  According to authorities, Pomeroy defrauded the estate of a man and his son. In October 2007, Pomeroy attended a closing on the sale of the deceased man’s home under a power of attorney and concealed her receipt of over $32,000 of the sale proceeds.
  
  In addition, Pomeroy set up a trust for one of the deceased man’s adult sons. Pomeroy, who was trustee for the man, deposited amounts the man received into bank accounts she set up, but withdrew substantial sums (over and above her fees) from the account for her own benefit from January to June 2008.
  
  Pomeroy repaid the estate in September 2008, and also paid over $50,000 from her personal account on the deceased man’s son’s behalf in October 2008. In each instance she used funds belonging to the elderly client.(1)

For the Massachusetts AG press release, see Disbarred Attorney Pleads Guilty in Connection with Stealing Nearly $900,000 from Elderly Client, Estate, and Trust.

(1) The Massachusetts Clients' Security Board of the Supreme Judicial Court manages and distributes monies from the court's Clients' Security Fund to members of the public who have sustained a financial loss caused by the dishonest conduct of a member of the Massachusetts bar acting as an attorney or a fiduciary.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" established to reimburse clients who have suffered a loss due to the dishonest conduct of attorneys in other states and Canada, see:

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