A disbarred Newport Beach attorney is learning what life is like as a defendant after he made his initial court appearance on felony charges of stealing more than $300,000 from a 73-year-old client.
Patrick Lund, who was disbarred in October 2014, was arrested Friday on a criminal complaint filed in February, charging him with attempted theft from an elder adult, grand theft, attempted grand theft and theft from an elder adult.
Lund also faces sentence-enhancing allegations of property damage exceeding $200,000 and aggravated white-collar crime exceeding $100,000.
He made his first court appearance Monday.
In the spring of 2013, Lund agreed to help the client “facilitate the process” of paying back a $290,000 loan, but instead pocketed the money, changed his phone numbers and moved to Arizona, Senior Deputy District Attorney Pete Pierce alleged.
Lund charged a fee of $12,500 to the client, Pierce said.
According to the State Bar of California, Lund misappropriated nearly $200,000 from another client “for his own purposes” in 2011. Lund paid back $130,500, but never gave back the rest, according to the State Bar.
In 2012, State Bar records show he was suspended for “failing to perform legal services with competence.”
–City News Service