People may jokingly refer to Biglaw bills as highway robbery, but less common is the case of actual Biglaw robbery (or fraud, as the case may be). But that’s the story here.
Last week, former Baker Donelson partner Jon Seawright pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud investors for his role in a timber Ponzi scheme. He’s set to be sentenced on November 16, and faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.
According to a Department of Justice press release announcing the deal, over the course of seven years, Seawright and a partner secured millions of dollars of investments in timber intended for resale to a lumber mill. However, the lumber mill wasn’t real and the timber deeds were invalid:
Seawright admitted that between 2011 and 2018, he and a co-conspirator participated in a scheme to defraud investors by soliciting millions of dollars under false pretenses and failing to use investor funds as promised. Seawright and his co-conspirator represented to investors that they were in the business of loaning funds to a “timber broker” to buy timber rights from landowners and then to sell the timber rights to lumber mills at a higher price. Seawright and his co-conspirator promised investors a return of 10% or more over twelve or thirteen months on each unit of invested capital. Seawright and his co-conspirator represented to their investors, and led their investors to believe, that Seawright and his co-conspirator were…
