A disbarred Northern Kentucky attorney who previously served prison time for stealing from clients is again facing felony charges, this time over allegations that he used a law firm's resources to give clients fraudulent settlement checks and collect money for legal work that was never completed.
Patrick Moeves, 57, is charged with theft by deception, criminal possession of a forged instrument and unauthorized practice of law as part of an indictment filed last month inKenton County Circuit Court.
He’s accused of handing out fraudulent checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars for settlements that didn't exist, and stealing from women who sought legal assistance from Drake Law for lawsuits they intended to file against the Kentucky Cabinet for Health
and Family Services.
While a 2012 order by the Kentucky Supreme Court permanently disbarred Moeves, an investigative report obtained by The Enquirer shows that the law firm hired him for legal research.
Court filings and police records detail how Moeves is once again the target of a felony prosecution after being sentenced to eight years in prison for similar crimes. They also show how an ex-attorney with a criminal past and a history of disciplinary complaints gained another law job.
Alex Lutgen Lacy, Moeves’ attorney, declined to comment on the new criminal allegations.
Phony settlement checks, stolen money
Independence police began investigating Moeves in September after receiving a report of a theft occurring at the law firm related to lawsuit settlements, the report shows.
Three women told police they met with Moeves at the empty law office on Sept. 3 to sign what they believed were settlement agreements for legal matters against the state agency. They were each given a check during the meeting, with one woman's totaling nearly $1 million.
Eric Deters, a suspended attorney whose consulting business shares an office with the law firm, told police that no lawsuits were ever filed on behalf of the women and therefore no settlements existed. Court records also do not list any such suits filed in state or federal court.
After handing over the checks, Moeves asked the women to wait 72 hours before depositing them, saying that he’d send cashier’s checks instead, the report states. Those checks didn’t arrive. At least two of the women deposited the original checks, only to learn that stop-payment orders had been placed on them, records show.
One woman checked her bank account two days after depositing a settlement check to discover a negative balance of more than $282,000, according to the records. It remains unclear why Moeves allegedly issued checks for such large amounts without settlement funds to compensate the women.
Deters told police that he hired Moeves as a “favor” to do legal research because Moeves could no longer practice law and needed a job. He said he fired Moeves soon after learning about the checks.
Moeves was assisting with the firm’s cases involving childcare facilities but wasn’t authorized to write checks and did so on an account containing no money, Deters said.
Two of the women wanted to sue the social services agency after childcare facilities they ran were forced to close, according to the report. The other woman is a CPR instructor whose credentials the state temporarily suspended.
Investigators also learned of another woman who paid Moeves $2,000 for a lawsuit to regain custody of her children after they were removed from her home, the report states. Her mother told police that Moeves didn’t perform any work after taking the woman’s money.
The report states that a total of $26,250 was stolen from the women. One of them told police she spent $19,750 in fees and loans to the ex-attorney, but the work wasn’t completed and she was never repaid.
‘I feel bad for those he lied to,’ Deters says
In a statement to The Enquirer, Deters said that Moeves falsely told several of the firm’s clients that he settled their cases for large sums of money.
He broke into the law office's safe to write the checks, but the firm halted the payments once the ordeal was discovered, Deters said, adding that Moeves also took fees unbeknownst to the law firm.
“The only person who did wrong was Pat Moeves,” Deters said. “No client was harmed at all except the disappointment because they had no money coming.”
He added that Moeves didn’t benefit from writing the checks. Despite theft accusations, Deters said that Moeves didn’t steal money from the clients.
“I feel bad for those he lied to. I also feel bad for him,” Deters said. “I publicly support him as he deals with his issues.”
KY Supreme Court: Moeves has history of ‘appalling' dealings with clients
It’s not the first time Moeves has faced charges related to falsely telling a client they’d reached a civil settlement that didn’t exist.
A client hired Moeves to represent her in a lawsuit against a surveying company beginning in 2007, court records state. Although she paid Moeves roughly $62,650 over several years, she never received the $1.5 million in settlement money he claimed she was owed.
When the client contacted people named in a dismissal order Moeves provided, the records state, she learned those people either didn’t exist or didn’t know anything about the suit. Online court records do not indicate that a lawsuit was ever filed.
Moeves was convicted of felony theft in 2011 and ordered to repay the woman the money she spent on his services. He was also convicted the same year in two other criminal cases for misappropriating client funds.
Disciplinary records state that Moeves lied to one of those clients about being terminally ill to convince them to loan him $5,000.
In the 2012 order banning Moeves from ever practicing law in the state, the Kentucky Supreme Court described Moeves’ unethical dealings with numerous clients as “appalling and reprehensible.”
Records show that Moeves posted bond in the most recent criminal case and is expected to appear in court on Sept. 8.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Disbarred lawyer accused of handing out checks for fake settlements, theft
