Minnesota lawyer Linda Ann Brost, 61, is under arrest this week after being suspended from practice and charged with theft by swindle, two counts of identity theft, and aggravated forgery after allegedly posing online and in letter as a deceased client to bilk his estate. A friend and beneficiary of the deceased raised the first alarm over Brost’s conduct.
Arthur Fischbach was 91 when he died and Brost reportedly swindled the estate for $46,769. He asked for money to be given to two friends and the rest donated to a Catholic Church and a Shriner’s Hospital. Brost went to his funeral and told one of the friends that he would inherit $10,000.
Brost allegedly set up a phony email account and a checking account in Fishbach’s name and had his mail redirected to a house that she owned. She is also accused of learned altering the date on her dead husband’s expired notary stamp and forging his signature to fraudulently notarize her own signature on a certificate of trust prepared for Fischbach.
She first allegedly tried to get the money in his bank. She is accused of presenting a fraudulently notarized document to BankCherokee which held $140,000 of Fischbach’s money. That effort failed but she was successful in getting more than $46,000 from Jackson National Life Insurance Company.
It is a pretty disgraceful list of charges. However, I am concerned about the appearance of double charging for the same underlying conduct. With the proliferation of criminal codes, it is common for the same conduct to be charged in different forms in order to force a plea or secure a longer sentence.
What is clear is that the state Supreme Court found the evidence sufficient to indefinitely suspended Brost who is looking at a daunting challenge at trial.
Source: Star Tribune
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People say a lot of things that are not true, nobody knows if she really did this stuff it is all a bunch of lies. She is innocent
Justice Holmes 1, February 27, 2013 at 1:32 pm
I am glad to see she was disbarred.
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I was glad to see she was a lawyer. 😉
What AY said …
My divorce lawyer worked for my husband, much to her benefit and my terror and loss after my working tirelessly in our biz for years. His other crimes were protected by the police who laughed at me and the state atty’s office mocked me.
Pays to be a ruthless big shot, and to represent one against your own client.
I am glad to see she was disbarred. Unfortunately bar grievance committees are often far to understanding to lawyers who steal from vulnerable clients. Bar grievance committees and their ways of whitewashing the misbehavior of lawyers is only one of the reason people hate lawyers but it is the one of the ones that as a lawyer bothers me the most.
Grave Robber
I consulted a lawyer in anticipation of a divorce. He bragged about how they had a couple fighting over a cherry dining room table for years. He flunked the interview. It was less costly to just give my ex my share of the house. He claimed my contributions to the mortgage should be looked at as rent for living in “his” house for so many years.
This law firm was also noted for carrying on out of town appeals for a client who would have been far better off just accepting a plea to begin with or accepting the verdict after the trial. The only ones who “made out” were the lawyers who bankrupted the woman.
A friend consulted a lawyer about a will. Lawyer said he didn’t need one, there was no need to incorporate his business since his estate could continue to run it, and legal fees for his substantial estate would be only a couple of hundred dollars. Lawyer made up a will anyway as directed, the company incorporated, another lawyer consulted to aid the probate.
2nd lawyer really wanted control of the check book, I balked. Tried to bully the beneficiaries, I balked. Told me to change the locks on the business and take it over myself, I balked. Mind made up, lawyer fired.
At the time I was considering to go back to school for a second career in law. These a$$holes changed my mind. Although there certainly is a need for good honest lawyers, I didn’t want to be associated with such people.
When my mother became ill, we had discussion about what she wanted done and had a will drawn up, but it was ok with her if we found ways to avoid probate as long as her wishes were adhered to. We had enough time to move her limited assets and avoid probate. I intend to do the same.
The lawyer in this case should be disbarred and put in jail. It’s a small but good start.
When my Father died my Brother and I went to a lawyer, who had been my Father’s friend. We were young and inexperienced and my father died intestate. My father lef an Estate that totalled perhaps $50,000 in 1963. We each received $1,500. It took us some years to discover this and by the time we did the lawyer was dead himself. I suspect that a whole lot of hanky panky goes on in matters of Estate.
Throw the book at her. It is a select community of people who have the access and ability to pull this sort of crime. The word needs to be out there that when caught your law degree will not buy you leniency.
Lets see…. The DOJ is not prosecuting banks…. So they have extra time for the postal fraud and bank frauds…. And not double jeopardy….
She needs a new job…maybe making license plates! Disgusting.