Milwaukee attorney faces license revocation

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A Milwaukee attorney who was held in contempt last year for failing to return client money is faced with the revocation of his license over allegations that he was running a fraudulent investment scheme.

An Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed on Dec. 14 alleges that Michael Krill of Michael M Krill Law Office violated the state’s attorney-ethics rules 20 times.

The violations include failing to hold client money in trust, distributing client money held in trust without the client’s permission and without providing documentation of how that money was spent, lying to the OLR, helping a client defraud a third party by preparing forged and fraudulent documents and disobeying a court order.

Nine of the charges in the complaint stem from Krill’s representation of a Racine woman and her business, AMSAH. She hired him in 2014, and he laster represented her in a case involving a building in Racine that was destroyed in a fire.

The OLR alleges that Krill deposited into his trust account $75,000 related to the client’s case and withdrew the money from the account without the client’s consent. He did the same thing when the Racine court ordered a $226,412.41 settlement be deposited into Krill’s trust account. Within months, Krill had withdrawn all or most of the money without permission from the court or his client within months of the deposit, according to the complaint.

The client eventually fired Krill in February after Krill had failed to account for the money, according to the OLR. Around the same time, the court ordered Krill to provide an accounting of the money he was supposed to be holding in his trust account and ordered him to transfer the money to another firm’s account.

In April, the court held Krill in contempt for failing to comply with its orders. A month later, he told the court he had “invested” the money in bonds owned by a California firm. The OLR contends Krill lied and that he had in fact transferred the money to banks in China and the United Kingdom.

In September, the court ordered Krill to pay $301, 412.41 to the client. It also sent him to jail for 30 days with work-release privileges as a contempt sanction and ordered him to pay $48,000 as the contempt sanction for failing to return the money ordered by the court.

Nine of the counts of misconduct against Krill stem from “investments” he helped set up in which he told clients and others to deposit money into his trust account after promising them the money would be used to further a multi-million dollar transaction, part of which the investors would receive in profit.

According to the OLR, Krill presented documents that he knew had been forged and were fraudulent, defrauding a client and two other people of nearly $150,000.

The OLR also alleges that Krill had persuaded one of his clients to buy Krill’s condo, which Krill had foreclosed on, at a sheriff’s sale. As part of the deal, Krill would stay in the condo, pay taxes and the two would renegotiate the condo’s ownership later. Krill also promised that the client could keep the condo if the “investment” had failed, according to the complaint. The client eventually sued Krill in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

The OLR also alleges that Krill had failed to cooperate with its investigation of his conduct, including lying to the OLR by saying that he could not attend the OLR’s investigative interview because he had a status conference in the AMSAH case that day. He never went to the conference, the OLR alleges.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to revoke Krill’s license, meaning he would be indefinitely banned from practicing law, although he would be able to petition for reinstatement after five years.

The OLR is asking the justices to order Krill to pay the $301,442.41 judgment as a condition for reinstatement.

The agency is also asking that the court order Krill to pay nearly $150,000 in restitution to the clients and parties he had defrauded.

During the proceedings in Racine County, the supreme court temporarily suspended Krill’s license in August. A month before, the FBI had raided Krill’s downtown Milwaukee office and East side residence in connection to the allegations in the OLR’s complaint.

Krill could not be reached for comment.

The high court appointed Jonathan Goodman on Jan. 31 to be the referee in the case. Goodman will, after conducting an evidentiary hearing, submit a report containing findings of fact, conclusions of law and recommend discipline. Krill would be able to appeal Goodman’s report.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will review Goodman’s recommendations and findings, and make a final decision in the matter.

Krill, who earned his law degree from Creighton University School of Law in 1980, has been admitted to practice in Wisconsin since 1991. His license is administratively suspended for failure to pay dues and failure to submit a certification of his trust account. Follow @erikastrebel