Former Norman Attorney Ordered to Pay $525,000 in Restitution to Defrauded Clients and IRS

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Today, DANE THOMAS WILSON, 61, of Oklahoma City, was ordered by United States District Judge Timothy D. DeGuisti to pay a combined total of $525,006.71 in restitution to former clients of his law practice, to the Oklahoma Bar Association, and to the Internal Revenue Service, announced Mark A. Yancey, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. Wilson was sentenced on December 16, 2016, by Judge DeGuisti to serve 30 months in federal prison for using a wire fraud scheme to embezzle from his clients and also for failing to file a tax return.

Wilson was charged by Information and pled guilty on February 24, 2016. Wilson admitted that from December 2010 through December 31, 2011, while he was a licensed attorney practicing in Norman, Oklahoma, he defrauded his clients by misappropriating funds that he received on their behalf from insurance companies and other payors. Wilson admitted that he deposited the funds he received for the benefit of his clients into a client trust account, and then wrote checks to himself, made cash withdrawals, or transferred money from the client trust account in amounts that exceeded the attorney’s fees that he was contractually entitled to receive from each client. He admitted that, as a result of his actions, some of his clients received no money or less money than they were due from the settlements or judgments he obtained on their behalf.

Wilson also admitted that he knowingly and willfully failed to file a federal income tax return with the IRS for the tax year of 2011.

Wilson was sentenced on December 16, 2016, by Judge DeGuisti to serve 30 months in federal prison for using a wire fraud scheme to embezzle from his clients and also for failing to file a tax return. Today, Wilson was ordered to pay restitution of $329,398.70 to the Oklahoma Bar Association. The OBA has paid out this amount over several years to Wilson's victims through the Client Security Fund, which was established by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to reimburse clients who suffer a loss of money or property because of the dishonest conduct of an attorney. Wilson was ordered to pay restitution of $141,772.01 to 19 other former clients, in various amounts ranging from approximately $200 to over $75,000.  Wilson was also ordered to pay $53,836 in restitution to the IRS.

This case was investigated by the Norman Police Department, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and IRS-Criminal Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Maxfield Green.