KALAMAZOO, MI (WTVB) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed six charges against a Coldwater man for allegedly taking over $100,000 from a client of the law firm where he was employed.
According to a press release from the Attorney General’s office, 63-year-old James Michael O’Briant was arraigned last week in the 8th District Court in Kalamazoo on four counts of Larceny exceeding $20,000 and two counts of Taxes-Failure to File/False Return.
Nessel alleges that O’Briant was working at a law firm while disbarred when he allegedly took money belonging to a 95-year-old client of the licensed attorney who worked with O’Briant at the same firm.
The licensed attorney had a representation agreement with the alleged victim and had agreed to temporarily hold the client’s money in the firm’s trust account for safekeeping.
O’Briant allegedly transferred the victim’s money from the trust account to the firm’s business accounts, and then withdrew and transferred the money again to use for his own purposes.
According to the Attorney General, these transfers included over $40,000 to O’Briant’s personal investment accounts.
O’Briant allegedly did not report the money he is accused of stealing from the victim on his taxes in 2018 or 2019.
A probable cause conference is scheduled for August 22, 2023 before Judge Richard A. Santoni in 8th District Court.
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