Former attorney sentenced to prison for stealing over $500,000 from disabled client

Seattle - A former Tacoma lawyer was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 18 months in prison for wire fraud, for his embezzlement from a vulnerable client's trust account, announced U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Colby Parks, 65, stole more than $530,000 from a client who received about$1.66 million due to significant permanent injuries she suffered as a passenger in a motorcycle accident. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said, "At some point your ethical barometer had to go off over the ten years that you were stealing from a disabled elderly person… You transitioned from need to greed and that transpired into entitlement."

"Not only did this defendant betray the trust of his client, he repeatedly lied about it to her and to those who investigated his financial abuse," said U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd. "Only after Mr. Parks was indicted and pled guilty did he settle the civil suit and agree to pay restitution to the victim. My office is committed to seek out and fully prosecute those who prey on vulnerable victims."

"The cruelty in this case is astounding," said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. "For more than a decade, Mr. Parks abused the trust of a vulnerable client who thought he was her friend. He lied to her, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, and ultimately left her with a drained account. To those fraudsters who believe they can successfully embezzle from others, the FBI and our partners will show that financial crimes have consequences, including a prison sentence."

According to records filed in the case, in 2010 Parks became the trustee for a living trust designed to pay the victim's expenses after she was severely injured as a passenger on a motorcycle. Initially, the victim's trust account contained approximately $1.66 million. However, over the first seven years that Parks was the trustee, he siphoned the funds for his own personal use in such large amounts that only $20,000 was left. In 2018, Parks had the victim take out a reverse mortgage on her home and used the proceeds to fund the trust account. He continued to make transfers from the account for his own use. Records from the account show that Parks repeatedly transferred funds to his own bank accounts and then, on the same day or soon thereafter, Parks would make a payment for a personal credit card for the same amount as the transfer. In all Parks made more than 600 transfers of the victim's funds to accounts he controlled. In October 2017 he made 13 different transfers from the victim's account to the ones he controlled.

In all, over ten years, Parks transferred more than $880,000 from the victim's accounts to ones he controlled. He paid himself at least $530,000 more than he was entitled to receive as his fees for trustee services.

By the end of 2019, the victim's accounts held only $15. She was forced to sell her home. And even then, Parks diverted proceeds from the sale by claiming the victim owed him money he had advanced to her.

Parks repeatedly told the defendant she was spending too much money, when in fact, the amount that the victim received as cash disbursements was a fraction of the amount that Parks secretly siphoned for himself.

When Washington State's Adult Protective Services investigated Parks' representation of the victim, Parks initially claimed he was only paid a flat rate of $24,000 per year. After Adult Protective Services requested supporting documentation, Parks revised his statement and said he was paid varying amounts that averaged over $54,000 per year. However, Parks collected well over $80,000 per year from the victim.

The Washington State Bar also investigated the matter, and Parks resigned his law license instead of discipline, which could have been disbarment.

Speaking in court today, the victim said to Parks, "For ten years I asked for printed statements. I never reviewed one invoice…. You were the person I trusted with my funds for ten years. You have devastated my life."

In asking for the 33-month prison sentence Assistant United States Attorney Cindy Chang wrote to the court, "What Parks did was not a mistake. It was not sloppy accounting. It was not an 'unfortunate' civil matter that can be resolved by money. Victim 1 is a victim, not a 'complaining party.' And Parks' conduct is not, as Parks references in his letter, merely a 'fireable offense.' What Parks did was a knowing, willful crime with devasting impacts on a vulnerable victim."

The case was investigated by the FBI with cooperation from the Washington State Bar and Adult Protective Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cindy Chang.