Nathan Hardwick enters the U.S. Courthouse in Atlanta on day four of testimony in his trial on charges of embezzlement. (Photo: John Disney/ALM) Nathan Hardwick IV (Photo: John Disney/ALM)
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This original version of this article has been changed. See below for details.

Atlanta lawyer Nathan Hardwick IV's sentencing hearing has been set for Dec. 19, after a federal jury convicted him Friday of embezzling $26 million from now-defunct residential real estate firm, Morris Hardwick Schneider, where he was the majority owner.

Prosecutor J. Russell Phillips said the government would seek roughly 15 years in prison for Hardwick, 53, who was immediately taken into custody after the verdict.

Judge Eleanor Ross of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that Hardwick “failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he is not likely to flee.”

Phillips had argued after the verdict that Hardwick was a flight risk, telling the judge: “A lot of money is still unaccounted for.”

Hardwick transferred at least $5 million from MHS to his girlfriend, Julia Olivares' bank account, Phillips said, adding that he wired her the money in $500,000 increments, and it was subsequently withdrawn in cashier's checks.

According to trial testimony, Hardwick often gambled at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, where Olivares has a beauty salon, Blown, according to her Facebook page.

The government has documented that about $19.6 million of the $26 million Hardwick was convicted of stealing came from MHS's escrow accounts, but a Fidelity National Finance executive, Erika Meinhardt, testified during the trial that Fidelity spent $29.5 million to plug the escrow accounts.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story identified Julia Olivares as wearing an 8.35 carat diamond ring at the hearing that, according to government evidence presented at trial, Nathan Hardwick had bought for an ex-fiancee. The story was updated after Olivares told the Daily Report she was wearing a different diamond ring. Olivares also contested the prosecution's assertion that she had been wired money in $500,000 increments, and she denied that she had “cashed any checks.”

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