Another Miami attorney suspended after an auditor says he ‘misappropriated’ over $10,000
What a Florida Bar auditor saw as funny business with $10,040 of client funds drew an emergency suspension for a Miami lawyer.
Hector Acosta Carrillo’s professional timeout began Friday, 30 days after the state Supreme Court granted the Bar’s request for an emergency suspension. Five days after the court’s decision, Benjamin Geffon filed paperwork with the state to change the Acosta Geffon law firm’s name to “Geffon Law.”
A report from Florida Bar auditor Matthew Herdecker, included with the Bar’s suspension request, said, “It is my professional opinion that [Acosta] was not in substantial compliance with the bar’s rules governing trust account. It is also my professional opinion that [Acosta] misappropriated client funds and used them for his own benefit.”
READ MORE: Miami lawyer misappropriated $26,500 of a client’s settlement, Florida Bar says
The Florida Bar sent Herdecker to pore over Acosta’s trust account after a check bounced on April 20. The copy of the check included with the Bar’s suspension request shows it to be a $3,500 check written on March 5 to Quantum Pain & Sports Medicine in a personal injury settlement. Attorneys usually receive personal injury settlement money, put the money in their trust accounts and distribute funds to the client and medical providers minus the lawyer’s own fees.
When the Bar asked Acosta about this, he emailed on May 9, “I was not notified by the provider nor the bank or else I would have corrected this immediately. I must have made a clerical error to cause this returned check. Please forgive my oversight and I have immediately corrected this mistake with the provider.”
Acosta sent a new $3,500 check on May 9.
But, Herdecker said his examination showed the Acosta Legal PLLC trust account was light by amounts “ranging from $250.00 to $10,040.00 from Feb. 27, 2023 to May 30, 2023.”
Herdecker said on May 8, the day before Acosta sent the second check to Quantum, the account should’ve had at least $10,097. The account should’ve had enough to pay $3,500 to Quantum, $6,000 to another medical provider and $597 to Acosta’s client.
The balance on May 8: $57. That’s $10,040 short of where Acosta’s account needed to be.
Herdecker’s chart showing the trust account’s fluctuations says $57 was the balance from April 6 until May 9, which means that was the balance when the first $3,500 check to Quantum bounced. A $3,500 deposit on May 9 covered the second $3,500 check to Quantum, which was dated that day.
Herdecker noted 15 trust account withdrawals for $4,980 from February through April, withdrawals the auditor said weren’t explained by the journal Acosta sent the Bar. Also, there was a transfer of $5,115 from the trust account to Acosta’s personal Chase checking account.
The Bar said Acosta paid the $6,000 to the other medical provider and the $597 to the client from the law firm’s operating account. But, the trust account shortages would still violate Florida Bar rules.
In boiler plate language, the Bar argued Acosta “has caused, or is likely to cause, immediate and serious harm to clients and/or the public and that immediate action must be taken for the protection of respondent’s clients and the public.”
