February 11th, 2008

A former attorney was handed his own prison sentence this week after months of battling in court. The man was found guilty of embezzling millions of dollars from his mesothelioma clients.

A sentence of 15 years in prison has been handed to a disbarred attorney this week after the man rejected a previous plea deal. The former attorney was found guilty of embezzling millions of dollars from clients’ trust funds, facilitating a lush lifestyle for the attorney. His clients, mostly mesothelioma victims, had the trust funds established to receive financial awards for their illnesses and were to be used to help the families of the victims. The attorney skimmed more than $13 million from these funds before he was caught last year.

Mesothelioma is a type of lung cancer resulting from asbestos exposure, and can take decades to manifest. Asbestos particles are introduced into the lungs, where they become stuck in the lining tissue. The particles keep the lungs from absorbing oxygen, effectively suffocating the victim. Though mesothelioma can take years to be diagnosed, the cancer is often times terminal when detected and lifespan is usually just a year or two when the cancer is found.