USA: Suit alleges owner of Polk County law firm stole $1.8M from client’s trust, lost it gambling

The Ledger

A civil lawsuit filed in Polk County accuses the owner of a law firm that recently closed its three offices of diverting nearly $1.8 million from a client’s trust fund to his personal account.

In the lawsuit, the surviving children of a Pennsylvania man say that Jason Penrod confessed to depleting the trust fund and using the money to gamble at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.

Penrod is the owner of Family Elder Law, which abruptly closed its offices in Lake Wales, Lakeland and Sebring in July.

Charles Anderson and Sherry Prevoznik, the children of David D. Anderson, filed the lawsuit Aug. 21 in Circuit Court for the 10th Judicial Circuit, based in Bartow. The 53-page complaint accuses Penrod of conversion, civil theft and breach of trust and seeks damages of more than $50,000. It also seeks Penrod’s removal as trustee of the fund.

The complaint, filed by a Brandon law firm, says that Penrod drafted a living trust in 2014 for David D. Anderson, with Penrod designated as successor trustee upon Anderson’s death and Charles Anderson and Prevoznik as sole beneficiaries. David D. Anderson died in 2021, the lawsuit states

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https://eu.theledger.com/story/news/local/2024/09/04/lawsuit-owner-of-polk-law-firm-stole-1-8m-lost-it-all-gambling/75053949007/