A Miami attorney accused of misappropriating $300,000 in 2019 bought a house in 2020
A Miami attorney who joined the Florida Bar in 1978 is accused of misappropriating $300,000 in 2019, one year before state records say he bought his current home in Sebring and four years before he ignored a Florida Bar subpoena.
For leaving a subpoena unfulfilled, the state Supreme Court hit Albert Moon with a contempt of court suspension that will start April 18. The subpoena asked for Moon’s trust account records as the Bar investigated a complaint filed by one of Moon’s clients, Robert Frankl of Cooper City. That investigation remains open.
Moon didn’t answer a Miami Herald phone message.
READ MORE: The settlement after a mother dies after surgery at a Miami plastic surgery center
Moon in Miami — and Sebring
The Florida Bar Grievance Committee’s finding of non-compliance against Moon — who joined the Florida Bar almost a year after his graduation from the University of Miami School of Law — included the emails quoted and trust account records quoted in what follows.
Frankl, a client in a case against Geico, emailed Moon: “Do not deposit the Geico check until | sign the check and review the closing statement for accuracy.”
That was on Aug. 19, 2019. Trust account records show Moon deposited a $300,000 check from Geico on Aug. 20, 2019.
A Lexis/Nexis database search says the Albert Moon who worked at 19 W. Flagler (Moon’s official address with the Florida Bar) and his wife now live at 3504 Golf Haven Ter. in Sebring. Highlands County property records say Albert Moon and his wife bought that two-bedroom, 1,777-square foot house for $130,000 in May 2020. They claim that as their residence with a homestead exemptions.
Frankl stated in a June 29, 2021, email to Moon that the lawyer had gone dark on him the previous six months, but still had his money:
“I have concerns since you have the settlement funds of over $300,000 which I did not authorize for almost two years, you avoid my communication, you move out of your Flagler office, do not provide me with a new address,which I asked for previously, move out of town somewhere etc.,” Frankl’s email said. “As you know I did not sign a release for the insurance company, but you somehow got the funds nor did I sign a closing statement nor other release documents, which you sent after you collected additional funds without my authority. In, fact you don’t respond to my requests.”
Moon emailed back to Frankl on July 1, 2021: “I am in receipt of your e-mail and apologize for not contacting you sooner. Unfortunately I have been without a secretary for four weeks as her nephew has been in Jackson in a coma and she went to Miami from her home in NC.
“In any case, your status is as follows...”
In an email to Boynton Beach lawyer and son Steve Frankl that night, Robert Frankl said, “Moon finally surfaced and deficiently and inadequately responded ... I don’t know who he is representing but it does not appear to be me.”
The money turned into one of nine complaints about Moon in Frankl’s grievance filed on Nov. 16, 2021. An Aug. 18, 2022, subpoena demanded that Moon send Bar auditor Patrick Dougherty records for Moon’s trust account from Aug. 1, 2019, through July 30, 2022.
Moon sent some records, but not enough.
Dougherty’s affidavit said some deposit slips were missing as was a receipts and disbursements journal. Moon sent only two monthly bank reconciliations and none of the monthly reconciliations. Only two client ledgers were sent, one of which was Frankl’s.
“When [Moon] provided his response to the subpoena on Oct. 21,2022,” Dougherty said, “he stated that he had requested additional materials from his former assistant in North Carolina and they would be forwarded on receipt.
“On Dec. 28, 2022, I emailed [Moon] to ask if he received any additional information from his assistant,” Dougherty continued. Moon “never replied to that email. I attempted to use the information provided to compile trust account records to determine if [Frankl’s] funds were still in the trust account but was unable to do so with the information provided.”
The Grievance Committee found, on Nov. 30, that Moon hadn’t properly responded to the subpoena and “that the non-compliance was willful.”
