A Fort Lauderdale attorney misappropriated $612,000. He’s been disbarred, but not found
Since Fort Lauderdale attorney John Spencer Jenkins’ emergency suspension in January, the amount of client funds he’s alleged to have misappropriated has gone up to $612,000, and Jenkins has gone from a suspended lawyer to a disbarred lawyer.
John Jenkins, aka Spencer Jenkins, also remains gone.
READ MORE: A Fort Lauderdale lawyer disappeared. An auditor said he misappropriated $452,000
No filings or any form of communication came from Jenkins to prevent Thursday’s disbarment by the state Supreme Court. When his Truist Bank accounts were frozen on Jan. 16, a referee’s report said, his law firm trust account had $93.16 and the operating account had a negative balance.
No post-judgment filings appear from Jenkins on the professional malpractice lawsuit by former client Peter Mullins, on which Mullins was awarded a $235,600 judgment in September 2023. Mullins was able to get $6,632 from Jenkins’ E-Trade account via garnishment.
Calling Jenkins’ professional and personal phones reaches disconnect messages. His professional office is closed. One database placed Jenkins at a hotel loft in Philadelphia, but staff said he wasn’t registered there.
No database lists Jenkins as deceased, unlike the man whose estate Jenkins is accused of swiping.
Estate money in, money and Jenkins out
Much of what follows comes from the report by the referee in the discipline case, 15th Circuit Judge Sarah L. Shullman. Jenkins refused to participate in the disciplinary process at any stage. In fact, he’d disappeared by the March 15 final hearing.
Wilton Manors resident William Walters died on Oct. 18, 2021, and left an estate of $643,399 to go to Louisville, Kentucky, residents Larry Corbin, Walters’ nephew and the personal representative of the estate; Walters’ sister, Shirley Dennison; and Walters’ nieces, Cindy Brown and Kelly Jarrell.
Corbin remained in text message contact with Jenkins until June 7, 2023. Jenkins stopped answering texts, answering his phone and, Corbin said, his mailbox was always full. Corbin filed a Florida Bar complaint on the grounds of lack of professional service and lack of communication.
The Bar proved no more successful in getting a response from Jenkins. No response to the complaint, no response when asking about what he knew about the money from Walters’ estate, no response to requests for trust account records.
Bar auditor Carl Totaro hit Truist Bank with a subpoena for Jenkins’ trust account records from Dec. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2023.
“As of April 29, 2022, the balance of the trust account was $394,478.34,” the referee’s report says. “The Trust Account records demonstrate that between May 27, 2022, and December 5, 2022, [Jenkins] received several deposits into his trust account totaling $637,813.75, entrusted to [Jenkins] for the benefit of the William L. Walters estate matter...”
Bank statements also showed, over 13 months spanning 2022 and 2023, $543,000 in online banking transfers from the trust account to Jenkins Law Firm’s operating account. But the operating account balance on Sept. 29, 2023, was only $15,544. The trust account balance was $144,602.
By Jan. 16, the trust account had $93.16 and the operating account was overdrawn. And not a dollar went to Walters’ beneficiaries, who should have been paid from the trust account.
“Consequently, [Jenkins] has misappropriated $612,507 in client funds,” the referee’s report stated.
