FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 30, 2009
WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/MA
CONTACT: CHRISTINA DiIORIO-STERLING
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E-MAIL: USAMA.MEDIA@USDOJ.GOV
DOVER ATTORNEY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROFESSOR SENTENCEDTO EIGHTEEN MONTHS IMPRISONMENT FOR MAIL AND WIRE FRAUD
Dover, MA... A Dover attorney and criminal justice professor was sentenced yesterday in federal court for stealing more than $237,000 from a pension/retirement-planning company based in New York that specializes in helping educators plan for retirement.
Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks and Randy Miskanic, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, announced that J. LINCOLN PASSMORE, age 64, of Dover, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton to eighteen months imprisonment to be followed by two years of supervised release, a $10,000 fine and restitution of $237,291.80.
Until recently, PASSMORE was a licensed attorney and had been a member of the Massachusetts Bar for approximately 35 years. PASSMORE maintained a general law practice that included, among other things, estate planning and related services for retirees. In addition, PASSMORE worked at a local college teaching criminal justice and was the Director of the Criminal Justice Program at the college.
In the early 1990's PASSMORE represented a client who received monthly annuity payments following her retirement as an educator. After his client died in April 1994, PASSMORE, who was the executor of his client’s estate, began pocketing the monthly annuity payments intended for his client. Among other things, in 1998, PASSMORE wrote to the administrator of the annuity and falsely claimed that his client was alive but that she was physically incapacitated and unable to affix her signature on a form letter from the administrator. PASSMORE pocketed more than 150 electronic deposits made to a bank account in the name of his deceased client from which he wrote hundreds of checks to “cash” and for his personal use. PASSMORE claimed that he was acting with a legitimate power of attorney for his client, despite that – as he well knew – it had terminated upon her death in 1994. In total, between May 1994 and April 2008, PASSMORE stole and converted to his own use more than $237,000.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda M. Ricci in Loucks’ Economic Crimes Unit.
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