Former attorney sentenced to two years in prison for stealing from estate he was to probate

Seattle - A 54-year-old former attorney was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to two years in prison for wire fraud for his theft of more than $1.5 million from an estate he was hired to probate, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Duncan Connelly voluntarily surrendered his law license as part of his plea agreement on March 5, 2026. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead said, "We talk about these financial crimes as if they're just money,.. but as one of the victim's wrote, 'this was the money of someone I loved'… (The victims) had trust in you…. What we're really talking about is theft. And then you covered it up."

"Mr. Connelly not only stole from his victims, he lied to them about his embezzlement for nearly two years," said Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd. "His crime was predatory, prolonged, and planned. The victims will likely not be made whole and will have to live the final years of their lives without the financial security that was rightfully theirs."

According to records filed in the case, in July 2020 Connelly was hired by the executor of the estate of a Port Townsend, Washington, woman who left some $3.7 million to six nieces and nephews, with nine specific gifts to various entities. The executor was one of the relatives - all of whom lived overseas - and all were unfamiliar with all of the legal steps necessary to distribute the funds and close the estate. The executor hired Connelly, who then worked at a large prestigious law firm, because of rankings on the firm's website.

Initially, Connelly handled the affairs of the estate appropriately while billing significant legal fees. However, in 2021, Connelly was fired from his large prestigious law firm and went out on his own as a solo practitioner.

Connelly began delaying payments and failing to respond to inquiries from the heirs. In February 2023 he began stealing money from the estate. He wrote himself checks from the estate and tried to make it look as if it was a specific bequest. He would deposit the money in his firm account and then transfer it to his personal account to pay his personal expenses. The first check was for $10,000 but the next one in May was for $50,000. Again, he used amounts that made it appear he was paying a specific bequest. All the while he continued to bill fees - some $6,000 for his "work" on the case.

Finally in August 2023 Connelly stole $1.5 million from the estate account which he labeled "transfer for investment" to make it look legitimate. But the investment was in risky online day trading and Connelly lost the money. He made some additional partial payments to some of the victims but by July 2024 there was just a little over $500 left in the estate, despite owing the beneficiaries well over $1 million. At this point Connelly stopped responding to the beneficiaries.

Connelly ultimately reported his theft to the FBI and federal prosecutors and agreed to give up his law license as part of his guilty plea.

In asking for a 30-month sentence prosecutors wrote to the court, "Connelly used his unique position of being the estate's attorney to commit his crime, knowing his clients had no knowledge of the legal system or estate procedures of this country. Instead of helping the client he was actively billing and ethically required to help, he exploited their inexperience. Connelly had other clients, other opportunities to embezzle client funds, but he chose these victims because they had a large estate and they were uniquely unprepared to challenge Connelly's lies or detect his fraud from afar."

Judge Whitehead ordered three years of supervised release to follow prison and $1,369,462 in restitution, which accounts for some of the money Connelly paid back after the theft.

The case was investigated by the FBI and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Grace Zoller.