Reedsburg lawyer pleads guilty to embezzling more than $1.6 million from client's estate trust

Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)

Jun. 15—A Reedsburg lawyer pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $1.6 million from a client's estate trust account between 2019 and 2022 while acting as the estate's trustee, using the money for personal expenses that included home improvements, dental work, vehicles and pet supplies.

Kristin D. Lein, 60, making her initial appearance on the charges in U.S. District Court, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return.

She will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Conley on Sept. 7.

After being advised by Conley she has the right to a jury trial, Lein said she did not want one.

"I have no intention of prolonging the pain I've caused the family," Lein said, referring to the family of the man whose estate she stole from.

Under a plea agreement, federal prosecutors and Lein's attorneys agreed to seek a sentence of between 41 and 51 months in prison.

The fraud charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, money laundering carries up to 10 years and the tax conviction carries up to three years. Advisory federal sentencing guidelines make it unlikely Lein would receive anything approaching the maximum sentence.

Lein's law license is currently suspended for failing to meet continuing legal education requirements, according to the state Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Court documents do not state how authorities became aware of Lein's actions. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the charges were the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wegner declined to comment on that after Wednesday's court appearance.

Trust plundered

According to a criminal charging document filed on May 15, in October 2017 Lein drafted a series of interconnected estate planning documents for one of her clients, whose full name is not stated in the charging document.

When he died in April 2019, Lein became trustee of the estate, which included multiple retirement savings accounts and life insurance policies. Lein's job was to manage the estate's assets and income on behalf of its beneficiaries, which included the man's widow and his two daughters and South Dakota State University.

Lein was not a beneficiary of the estate.

After the man died and the trust went into effect, Lein opened a bank account for the trust at Monona State Bank.

Two months after the man's death, Lein began to transfer money from accounts belonging to his estate to her own account at Monona State Bank. In 2019, the transfers totaled $427,473. She used the money for various personal expenses, including improvements on her town of Reedsburg home, the purchase of several vehicles including a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, dental work for herself and her husband totaling more than $78,000, goods from Amazon totaling more than $151,000 and more than $90,000 for pet supplies.

The charging document states Lein lied to the client's widow during a phone call in February 2022 when she said the estate balance was nearly $1.9 million, when it was significantly less due to Lein's embezzlement.

Lein took more than $1.64 million from the estate. Under the plea agreement, she would be required to repay about $1.34 million. The charging document states Lein had earlier paid back some of the money she took by making occasional payments to the man's widow to lull her into a false sense of security and to hide the embezzlement scheme.

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