Florida lawyer ghosted clients, including one in Miami. His license has been revoked [Miami Herald]

Miami Herald (FL)

Something seemed off-kilter when a Florida defense lawyer asked a federal judge in Miami to delay his client’s sentencing the day before the hearing in a health-insurance fraud case.

The client showed up in court, but her lawyer didn’t.

Then, U.S. District Judge Donald Graham lost his cool when he discovered that Tampa attorney Benjamin Waldo Buck Jr. had abandoned her after an August 2022 criminal trial.

“Are you saying that since the trial ended you have not met with Mr. Buck regarding the Pre-sentence Investigation Report?” an incredulous Graham asked the defendant in late October.

“No, not at all,” Jaroslava Ruiz responded, saying she went through the process with the probation office on her own.

Graham instantly assigned a seasoned defense lawyer to her Miami case and threatened to hold the no-show Buck in contempt of court. What the judge didn’t know was that Buck had been ghosting clients like Ruiz all over the state, generating more than 30 complaints with the Florida Bar, including allegations of keeping clients’ fees after dropping them. On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court revoked Buck’s license for five years — after he had voluntary agreed to surrender it, but then withdrew his motion. The Florida Bar called his reversal “a blatant abuse of the legal process and misrepresentation to this court.”

Reached by email, Buck, 32, said he was unavailable to comment Monday about his disbarment. According to his listing on the Florida Bar web page, he graduated from Florida State University College of Law in 2015, obtained an advanced degree in taxation from the University of Miami school of law, and was licensed to practice in state court, all three of Florida’s federal districts and the bankruptcy court in South Florida.

Buck represented Ruiz, a 51-year-old, former nurse in Cuba when she was charged with assisting a healthcare fraud scheme in 2021. The following year, she was convicted with two co-defendants of conspiring to commit healthcare and wire fraud at a Miami-area clinic that billed $34 million in false claims to private insurers and collected $7 million in profits between 2016 and 2020.

Ruiz, a mother of two, faces sentencing Tuesday before Graham in Miami federal court.

Ruiz’ new defense attorney, Frank Quintero, argued in court papers that she only participated for one year in the billing scheme for physical therapy and other services and made just $25,000 in profits, noting that “the only way for Ms. Ruiz to pay any restitution is for her to be gainfully employed as soon as possible.”

As a first offender, Ruiz faces a guideline sentence ranging from 9 years to 11 years, which is supported by Justice Department prosecutors but strongly opposed by Quintero. He has asked Graham, the judge, to give Ruiz a sentence of two years and four months — the same as another convicted defendant who recruited her into the clinic. Another convicted defendant received about six years in prison. A fourth defendant is a fugitive who didn’t stand trial last year.

In his latest court filings, Quintero attached copies of the Florida Bar and Supreme Court records showing their disciplinary actions against Buck, along with an online news story on his disbarment by First Coast News.

In a petition to revoke his law license, Florida Bar accused Buck of numerous violations in both state and federal courts, including failing to communicate with clients, represent defendants, pursue claims for plaintiffs, show up at court hearings and return clients’ fees after dropping them. Buck also was threatened with two contempt of court orders, including one from Graham, the federal judge in Ruiz’s case in Miami.

“Disciplinary revocation is tantamount to disbarment,” the Florida Supreme Court wrote in its five-year suspension order on Aug. 17, noting that it takes effect 30 days later “so that [Buck] can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients.”