Friday, March 9, 2018
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Suspended Attorney Philip Layfield Charged With Mail Fraud
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Philip Layfield—who was suspended from law practice by the State Bar of California after he failed to show up for his Jan. 24 disciplinary hearing—was arrested in New Jersey and is facing trial in federal court here on a charge of mail fraud.
The single count is in connection with his pocketing settlement funds belonging to Josephine Nguyen, who was a client of the erstwhile law firm of Layfield & Barrett. She was to receive 60 percent of a $3.9 million settlement of her personal injury claim, amounting to $2,315,000.
According to State Bar charges, Layfield “willfully and intentionally misappropriated at least $2,314,942.20 ($2,315,000-$57.85)” of Nguyen’s share. However, Mark E. Speidel, a special agent in the Department of Homeland Security, said in an affidavit is support of an arrest warrant that she was given an “advance” of $25,000.
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—Essex County Dept of Corrections |
This occurred, according to his recitation of facts, at a time Layfield and his staff were coming up with bogus excuses in response to her repeated inquiries as to why she had not received payment.
It was the sending of the check, apparently to pacify Nguyen to facilitate the continued withholding of funds from her, that forms the basis of the mail fraud charge. According to the Feb. 23 criminal complaint, signed by Speidel:
“Beginning in or about February 2016, and continuing to the present, in Orange County, California, within the Central District of California, defendant PHILIP JAMES LAYFIELD, also known as Philip Samuel Pesin, knowingly and with intent to defraud, devised, participated in, and executed a scheme to defraud J.N. as to material matters and to obtain money and property from J.N. by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and for the purpose of executing and attempting to execute the above-described scheme to defraud, on or about March 9, 2016, caused a check (representing a partial, de minimus payment of funds owed to J.N.) to be placed in an authorized depository for mail matter to be sent and delivered by the United States Postal Service or a private or commercial interstate carrier, according to the directions thereon.”
Speidel related in his affidavit a comment by Nguyen’s present lawyer, Michael Artinian, that he saw no justification for Layfield filing a personal injury action in the case, explaining:
“He believed that the only reason LAYFIELD filed the lawsuit was to increase LAYFIELD’s fee from 33 1/3% to 40% because, among other things, the lawsuit was filed approximately two weeks before the mediation and the case settled for a large amount as the result of a very short single mediation session.”
The complaint was filed in Orange Superior Court on July 25, 2016, alleging personal injuries incurred when Nguyen was struck by a motor vehicle while crossing a street on Feb. 24 of that year.
Layfield, who fled to Costa Rica in June of last year, was in the United States for two days in October, returning to Costa Rica, and came back to the U.S. Feb. 19, according to Speidel’s affidavit. It says the attorney intended take a return flight to Costa Rica from Newark.
He was arrested Feb. 26 and taken that day before Magistrate Judge Steven C. Mannion of the District of New Jersey who appointed the federal public defender to represent him. On March 2, Mannion denied bail, in light of the prospect of flight, and ordered a transfer to the Central District of California.
In all, Layfield stole more than $3.4 million from clients, according to State Bar charges.
There had been confusion as to Layfield’s whereabouts. The State Bar website lists for him an address in Utah, while the State Bar Court sent papers to him at an address in Miami, which he used on his answer to the notice of charges.
The Miami address, Speidel noted in his affidavit, is merely a mail drop, though Layfield had portrayed it to clients as that of an office of Layfield & Barrett.
Copyright 2018, Metropolitan News Company