Jailed attorney siphoned client money to pay bills, grand jury transcripts say

Jailed probate attorney Robert Graham secretly poured an average of $187,000 a month from a client trust fund into another bank account to run his law practice and pay personal bills, grand jury transcripts show.

Tim Schultz, a financial expert with the Clark County District attorney’s office, testified before the grand jury earlier this month that Graham used the trust fund to pay $244,000 in taxes, massive advertising expenses and credit card bills.

“I personally believe he was using it as a piggy bank to pay his bills,” Schultz told the grand jury. “He had a lot of money he was paying out.”

Schultz said financial records show that Graham, who regularly promoted his Lawyers West law firm on television, spent between $700,000 and $800,000 a year on advertising.

The trust account, which the State Bar of Nevada reported should be holding at least $13 million for clients, had only $132,000 by the end of last year, Schultz testified.

The investigator’s analysis of Graham’s financial dealings from 2013 to 2015 shed new light on what he may have done with client money. If Graham averaged spending $187,000 a month in client funds, that would add up to $6.7 million for those three years alone.

Schultz’s testimony was included in 200 pages of grand jury transcripts obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The grand jury indicted Graham Jan. 5 on charges of stealing $2.1 million in three of his cases. He is facing six felony counts of theft and exploitation of an older or vulnerable person and two gross misdemeanor counts of destroying evidence.

Eric Heindel, a veteran Las Vegas police detective who investigates financial crimes, testified that Graham told him he never intended to keep the money he took from his clients in those cases.

His deputy public defender, Bryan Cox, declined to comment Thurday on the grand jury testimony.

“We’re still gathering information as we prepare our defense,” Cox said.

In all, prosecutors have alleged in court that Graham, 52, may have stolen more than $15 million in client funds, and they expect to file additional criminal charges. He is in custody at the Clark County Detention Center on $5 million bail.

The state bar filed a complaint against Graham alleging the massive theft occurred before he abruptly closed his Lawyers West office in Summerlin on Dec. 2. He has been temporarily suspended from practicing law while the bar conducts disciplinary proceedings.

In an interview with the Review-Journal last month, Graham described his law practice as a 20-year business failure.

“I was responsible for the litigation and felt I had no out,” Graham said. “So bit by bit, I moved the chairs on the deck. Each year, things got worse and worse, and I tried to bail myself out and just couldn’t.”

The indictment alleges that Graham stole $1.1 million from the estate of Michael Macknin, $595,596 from the estate of Lois Lee and $471,585 from the special needs trust of Thane Parton.

Parton, a 61-year-old retired grocer who has a variety of illnesses that prevent him from working, testified how Graham often gave him excuses when he sought payments from his special needs trust to maintain his modest lifestyle.

Barbara Macknin, the wife of Michael Macknin, a former police officer and casino company investigator who died in 2013, also testified about the troubles she encountered trying to get her husband’s estate money from Graham’s office.

Brandi Cassady, who was appointed to take over Graham’s cases, told the grand jury that Graham maintained tight control of his client trust fund and business accounts.

“It’s my understanding that he was very close to the cuff and only certain people were given certain bits of information, but no one had the total picture,” she said.

Cassady described the procedure as “reckless” and one that potentially could harm clients.

She also testified that Graham kept open his probate cases for an unusually long time, making it hard for clients to get their inherited money.

“He had one probate case that’s been open for 12 years,” she said. “That’s completely unheard of.”

Janeen Isaacson, an assistant state bar counsel, told the grand jury how her organization scrambled to take control of Graham’s client files in the days after he shut down his office.

She described his clients as “scared” and “bewildered.”

She said she found it disturbing that when Graham eventually submitted what she called a rambling court affidavit explaining his side of the story, he refused to say that he stole their money.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.