RI Lawyer Who Used Clients’ Money for Private Schools, Golf, Travel Sentenced to Federal Prison
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Lawyer Who Used Clients’ Money for Private Schools, Golf, Travel Sentenced to Federal Prison
As GoLocal was first to report in August of 2023, the federal government in its suit said that Leach spent money from his Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts accounts “for personal expenses at Wheeler School, Syracuse University, Pitzer College, Metacomet Country Club, travel expenses, and restaurants” — in violation of federal law.
“Peter Leach egregiously abused the core responsibility of any lawyer- the trust of his clients – to help himself to money that belonged to victims of accidents and tragedies, and then tried to cheat on his taxes into the bargain” remarked U.S. Attorney Cunha. “Today’s sentence provides not just accountability, but hopefully a chance for his victims to recover some of the funds that he stole from them, and it serves notice of this Office’s continued determination to tireless pursue the perpetrators of financial crimes against vulnerable victims
About Case
At the time of his guilty plea to charges of wire fraud and tax evasion, Leach admitted that he forged client signatures and deposited client settlement checks into his attorney IOLTA account, using those funds to pay personal expenses and to repay earlier clients whose funds he had embezzled. To prolong his scheme, Leach repeatedly made false representations to clients about the status of their cases and told them that he would pay their medical expenses and other bills with settlement funds he had received
Leach also admitted that from 2014-2019, he took multiple steps to conceal his gains from the IRS, including by making false statements on IRS forms regarding his assets; making false statements to IRS Revenue officers about his ability and willingness to pay his taxes and about his withdrawal of over $540,000 of cash from his IOLTA accounts for payment of personal expenses; and by transferring money from his client account to the account of family members to make personal payments.
“While it is the expectation that a person can trust their attorney, Leach used his position to take advantage of his clients. He used their money and personal information to line his pockets, telling lie after lie to get what he wanted. Now, there is no lie that he can tell to hide the fact that he will spend the next few years in prison for his criminal acts. It’s time for him to face the truth,” said Thomas E. Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS-CI Boston.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin sentenced Leach to 33 months of incarceration to be followed by two years of federal supervised release. Additionally, Leach was ordered to pay restitution to his victims totaling $299,774.41. In a separate restitution matter, the court is expected to enter an order that Leach pay $320,622.76 to the IRS, representing taxes he failed to pay to the agency.