Lawyer & Client Jailed in Bizarre Scheme to Defraud Attorneys
A Washington state man and his lawyer have been sentenced to four-year federal prison terms in a bizarre, yet sophisticated scheme to fraudulently sell the homes of judges and attorneys.
In the latest salvo in a revenge effort that has been ongoing for 25 years, client David Alan Hawkins, 68, a former real estate developer, enlisted the help of his lawyer, Harry Skeins Jr., 72, of San Antonio, Texas, to place fraudulent liens on the homes of judges, attorneys and at least one banker in which they had no legitimate interest whatsoever, reports the Seattle Times. To make their scheme appear valid, the two even set up a fake title insurance company, and had obtained $1.5 million from an Atlanta lender for selling homes belonging to a Washington state appellate judge and a banker before their arrest in 2006.
Court records say their scheme was exposed when a judge’s wife questioned the presence of a real estate appraiser at her home.
Hawkins, who was described by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez as having suffered for many years from “mental issues,” targeted these professionals for payback because he viewed them as the reason why he lost his shirt in a failed multimillion-dollar condominium project during the 1980s, the newspaper explains.
Skeins, who is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and served in the Army for 28 years, had a previously unblemished record. His lawyer said he had been depressed after a divorce and the loss of his home and was living in a trailer at the time of the crimes. The judge attributed his participation in the scheme with Hawkins to apparent greed.
In addition to their four-year prison terms, each was also ordered Friday by Martinez to pay $1.6 million in restitution.
