PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. — A 54-year-old former attorney was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for wire fraud involving the theft of more than $1.5 million from an estate he was hired to probate.
Duncan Connelly voluntarily surrendered his law license as part of his plea agreement on March 5, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
Estate account dwindled to about $500 while beneficiaries were owed more than $1 million
In July 2020, Connelly was hired by the executor of the estate of a Port Townsend woman who left roughly $3.7 million to six nieces and nephews, with nine specific gifts to specific entities, according to records filed in the case.
The executor was one of the relatives, all of whom lived overseas and were unfamiliar with the various legal steps needed to distribute the funds and close the estate.
Connelly was hired while he worked at a large, prestigious law firm because of the rankings on the firm’s website.
At first, Connelly handled the estate’s affairs appropriately while billing significant legal fees. In 2021, Connelly was fired from the law firm and set out to work as a solo practitioner.
Connelly began to delay payments and failed to respond to inquiries from the heirs. In February 2023, Connelly began stealing money from the estate.
He wrote checks from the estate and tried to make them look like payments of specific bequests.
Connelly would then deposit the money in his firm account and transfer it to his personal account to pay personal expenses.
The first check was for $10,000, but the one following was for $50,000. Connelly used amounts that made it appear he was paying a specific bequest, while continuing to bill fees upwards of $6,000 for his “work” on the case.
In August 2023, Connelly stole $1.5 million from the estate account, which he labeled “transfer for investment” to make it look legitimate. Connelly’s investments included “risky” online day trading, which led to him losing the money.
Connelly made some partial payments to a portion of the victims, but by July 2024, there was only about $500 left in the estate, despite still owing the beneficiaries more than $1 million. Connelly ultimately cut off his communication with the beneficiaries.
Connelly reported his theft to FBI, surrendered law license
Connelly reported his own theft to the FBI and federal prosecutors, agreeing to relinquish his law license as part of a guilty plea.
“Connelly used his unique position of being the estate’s attorney to commit his crime, knowing his clients had no knowledge of the legal system or estate procedures of this country,” prosecutors wrote to the court in asking for a 30-month sentence. “Instead of helping the client he was actively billing and ethically required to help, he exploited their inexperience.
“Connelly had other clients, other opportunities to embezzle client funds, but he chose these victims because they had a large estate and they were uniquely unprepared to challenge Connelly’s lies or detect his fraud from afar,” they continued.
U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead ordered three years of supervised release to follow Connelly’s prison sentence, and he must pay $1,369,462 in restitution. The restitution accounts for some of the money Connelly paid back after the theft.
“We talk about these financial crimes as if they’re just money, but as one of the victims wrote, ‘this was the money of someone I loved’… [The victims] had trust in you,” Whitehead said at the sentencing hearing. “What we’re really talking about is theft. And then you covered it up.”
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