By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Even people with legal expertise can fall prey to scams, two Arkansas lawyers learned recently.

Stark Ligon, executive director of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Office of Professional Conduct, said today that at least two lawyers in the state have been victimized by a scam involving the supposed transfer of funds from Canada into the U.S.

A third lawyer discovered the operation was a scam in time to avoid any loss. Ligon did not release the lawyers’ names.

In each case, a person contacted a lawyer by e-mail and claimed to be living outside the U.S. and needing representation in the purchase of property in Arkansas, Ligon said. A large check from a Canadian bank was then mailed to the lawyer, who deposited it in his client trust account.

The client then notified the attorney of a change in business or family circumstances and asked him to transfer a large part of the funds back to the client at a foreign bank. In at least two cases the lawyer made the transfer and learned within a day or two that the check was bogus.

One lawyer avoided losing any money when his bank determined the check was bogus before it was deposited.

One of the lawyers who reported being scammed now has a trust shortage of $480,000 and the other has a shortage of about $145,000. One had his trust account frozen by his bank, and the other had other accounts at his bank frozen, Ligon said.

The FBI is investigating the incidents. Similar incidents have been reported across the country, he said.

That the victims had law degrees was no protection against this particular scam, Ligon said. The lawyers reported that their banks told them the checks cleared, he said, though he noted that he had not spoken with the banks to confirm the lawyers’ reports.

The question of when it is safe to write checks on a trust account has always been “a hard question to nail down,” Ligon said.

“We are asking every lawyer and every banker to please be very careful on this, take every precaution and not assume that any of this is good funds,” he said.

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Anyone who has information or questions about the scam can contact Ligon at (501) 376-0313 or (800)506-6631, or the FBI office in Little Rock at (501)221-9100.