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Friday, September 03, 2010
Ind. Courts - "Roanoke attorney charged with fund thefts"
Rebecca S. Green reports today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in a long story that begins:
A prominent local attorney and non-profit board member has been arrested and charged with corrupt business influence and theft amid allegations he took more than $100,000 from his clients’ trust fund accounts.Arrested Thursday, Daniel E. Serban, 53, of the 10000 block of Cygnet Cove in Roanoke, is accused of failing to distribute money paid into Serban Law Office’s Trust Account to the appropriate clients or to those entitled by court order to receive it. According to court documents, the behavior continued from January 2006 until Tuesday.
Both charges are felonies, and if convicted, Serban could serve two or more years in prison.
Attorneys are required to keep escrow-type accounts where money either coming from or going to their clients will be kept. Those accounts are to be treated with extreme fiduciary care and attorneys have a strong ethical responsibility to protect that money, according to the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office.
Much of the money misappropriated, according to prosecutors, came from a civil case filed in 2003. In that case, Serban represented R. Bruce Dye in a dispute with former business partners over money.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 3, 2010 09:32 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts