A federal judge sentenced former attorney Duncan Connelly to two years in prison for wire fraud and ordered him to pay $1,369,462 in restitution after he stole more than $1.5 million from an estate he was hired to probate. The money was intended for a deceased woman's family overseas; Connelly lost the stolen funds through online day trading.
The estate belonged to a Port Townsend woman who left roughly $3.7 million to six nieces and nephews living overseas, along with nine specific gifts to other entities, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The heirs chose Connelly in July 2020 after finding him through rankings on his former law firm's website. He initially handled the probate appropriately and billed about $6,000 in legal fees, KIRO 7 News Seattle reports.
After his law firm fired him in 2021, Connelly began working as a solo practitioner, the station reports. He delayed payments to the heirs and did not respond to their inquiries. By February 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, he was writing checks to himself from the estate account and disguising them as specific bequests.
How the Estate Funds Were Diverted
In May 2023, Connelly deposited a $10,000 check into his firm account, followed by a $50,000 check, then transferred the money to his personal account for personal expenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. That August, he moved $1.5 million from the estate account under the label of an investment. He lost the funds through online day trading, the office said.
Connelly eventually stopped responding to beneficiaries, although he made some partial payments. By July 2024, the estate account held a little over $500, while he owed beneficiaries well over $1 million, KIRO 7 News Seattle reports.
Prosecutors Call the Scheme Predatory and Prolonged
Connelly eventually reported the theft to the FBI and federal prosecutors himself. In March this year, he agreed to surrender his law license voluntarily as part of a plea agreement, KIRO 7 reports. Prosecutors had sought a 30-month prison sentence, arguing that he took advantage of clients' inexperience despite his professional obligations, the station reported.
Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said Connelly concealed the embezzlement from victims for nearly two years. Floyd said the victims might not recover their losses or receive the financial security intended for their later years, according to KIRO 7 News Seattle.
Sentence and Restitution
U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead also imposed three years of supervised release. The $1,369,462 restitution order accounts for money Connelly had previously repaid, according to KIRO 7 News Seattle.
Potential Recovery Beyond Restitution
A court-ordered restitution award is not the only potential resource described in Washington’s rules. The Washington State Courts’ Client Protection Fund regulations say the fund may mitigate pecuniary losses caused by a lawyer’s dishonesty or failure to account for entrusted money or property when the conduct is connected to legal practice or related fiduciary work. The rule alone does not establish whether this estate’s beneficiaries qualify.
What Washington’s Protection Rules and Other Cases Show
The regulations also generally require an applicant to file a disciplinary grievance before a payment application is considered, with exceptions for cases such as when the lawyer is disbarred, deceased, or the Client Protection Board finds a grievance is not required, according to the Washington State Courts. The rules do not determine whether the beneficiaries in Connelly’s case qualify.
Other Washington cases involved different conduct and parties. The Washington State Attorney General’s Office said defendants used probate appointments to take control of estates belonging to about 200 deceased strangers between March 2019 and January 2024, with most cases filed in Kitsap County. In a separate case, HousingWire reported that former attorney Colby Parks pleaded guilty to wire fraud over embezzlement from a disabled client’s living trust, which he began administering in 2010; that case also involved reverse-mortgage proceeds. Both cases differ from Connelly’s theft from a single probate estate.
Whitehead said the theft and its concealment caused harm beyond the financial loss, KIRO 7 reported.
