A disbarred Beverly Hills lawyer pleaded guilty Monday to a federal criminal charge for scheming to steal more than $500,000 from a client he represented in bankruptcy proceedings and using part of the money to pay off a $75,000 debt.
Alan F. Broidy, 65, entered his plea in Los Angeles federal court to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer scheduled a Nov. 30 sentencing hearing for Broidy, who faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
According to his plea agreement, Broidy was hired to represent GRL-Mesa Investments LLC, a Phoenix-based company that filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles in December 2015.
In August 2016, the bankruptcy case was resolved and dismissed. Broidy was directed by the court to hold $2.46 million in a client trust account — funds derived from the sale of assets belonging to GRL-Mesa’s bankruptcy estate. The money was supposed to be distributed to Mesa’s creditors.
Although he transferred $1.93 million of Mesa’s funds to its creditors, including $975 owed to the U.S. Trustee, Broidy did not return the remaining $512,526 that belonged to Mesa, federal prosecutors said.
Broidy admitted that on Aug. 16, 2016, without his client’s knowledge or consent, he deposited $100,000 of Mesa’s money into his personal bank account, and then transferred $75,000 of that money to the bank account in New York of one of his own creditors.
Through the unauthorized transfers that were hidden from Mesa, Broidy arranged to pay one of his own expenses with Mesa’s money. In July 2019, the State Bar of California disbarred Broidy, prosecutors said.