Suspended Lawyer Suspected Of Running Phony Upfront Fee Loan Mod Ripoffs Now Found Missing Along w/ $700K Allegedly Pocketed Peddling Bogus Business Deals

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the Sun News reports:

• Mark Brunty, a Myrtle Beach lawyer who has been suspended from his law practice by the state Supreme Court, is accused in court documents of forging the signatures of prominent business leaders in a scheme to steal $700,000 from a pair of out-of-state investors.
  
  Brunty allegedly forged the names of Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. President Jim Apple and Alec Elmore, the vice president of First Federal Savings & Loan in Charleston, on documents used to persuade brothers Morris and Saul Kravecas to invest in phony business deals along the Grand Strand, according to a lawsuit filed in Horry County’s circuit court. The brothers’ investment, which was supposed to be kept in Brunty’s trust account, now is missing.
  
  “It’s flat gone as far as we can tell,” said Amanda Bailey, a lawyer representing the Kravecas brothers.
  
  Brunty also is missing. Bailey said she has not been able to locate him in order to serve him with a copy of the lawsuit.
  
  Meanwhile, reports with Better Business Bureau offices here and in other states show consumers have filed numerous complaints about a mortgage loan modification program Brunty promoted through email and telephone solicitations he made to people facing foreclosures. According to the complaints, people who responded to the emails received generic loan modification information from Brunty’s law firm and a request for an advance payment of $3,000. The complaints state that Brunty cashed clients’ checks but did little work to help them save their homes.
  
  Brunty could not be reached for comment Monday. A recording states that his telephone number is out of service and an answering machine at his law offices states the business is temporarily closed.

For more, see Suspended Myrtle Beach lawyer accused of fraud, forgery.

See also, ABA Journal: Missing lawyer faces multiple lawsuits.