A Massachusetts lawyer who resigned from the bar last year after he was accused of stealing money from his clients faces new federal charges.
Prosecutors say Kevin M. Brill embezzled a combined $589,896 from trust funds he oversaw, beginning in at least October 2012 and continuing through July 2017.
In a charging document filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, prosecutors said Brill stole from a pair of trust funds held by two clients at Morgan Stanley Bank.
Brill had a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the money, but instead used it for personal expenses, the charging documents allege, including the purchase of a new car.
Prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling's office charged Brill with six counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false tax returns for allegedly failing to disclose the income he fraudulently received. He is accused of skirting nearly $170,000 in estimated federal taxes, according to court records.
Court documents list Brill a resident of Newton and Waltham. He has yet to enter a plea. He could not be reached for comment Friday, and a message left with his lawyer was not returned.
The federal case comes nine months after Brill voluntarily resigned from the Massachusetts bar. He gave up that privilege in September 2019, after one of the alleged thefts came to light.
Investigations
In a resignation affidavit, Brill admitted there was sufficient evidence to prove he took approximately $415,000 from one of the trusts, and that officials could find he engaged in professional misconduct.
He had partially reimbursed the trust $335,000 at that time, according to the affidavit. The state Supreme Judicial Court accepted Brill’s resignation in October 2019, and Brill was disbarred that same month, according to state records.
Brill previously notified the Board of Bar Overseers in 2018 that he decided to close his law practice, retire and resign, and placed himself on retirement status, according to his resignation affidavit.
He was previously admitted to practice law in state courts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
