Ex-lawyer pleads guilty to embezzling $530K from disabled client
TACOMA, Wash. – A former Tacoma lawyer pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $530,000 from a disabled client over the course of a decade.
Colby Parks, 65, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, all in connection with a years-long scheme where prosecutors say he embezzled money from a client’s trust account after they were permanently injured in a motorcycle accident.
Timeline:
According to court records, Parks became the trustee of the client’s account in 2010, which was intended to help pay the victim’s expenses after the accident.
At first, that trust account held around $1.66 million, but for the next seven years, Parks withdrew funds for personal use, court records say.
Eventually, only $20,000 was left in the account.
Court records say Parks had the victim take out a reverse mortgage on her home, and Parks used the money to fund the trust account — which he then continued to transfer to his own accounts.
Prosecutors say, over the course of 10 years, Parks transferred some $880,000 from the victim’s trust accounts, at least $530,000 more than he was entitled to as his management fees. By 2019, the victim had only $15 left in her trust, forcing her to sell her home. Parks then siphoned some of the funds from the sale, as well, claiming it was money he had advanced her and was owed, court records say.
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https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/tacoma-lawyer-embezzles-530k
