The items ranged from the luxurious to the mundane—watches, a 60-inch television, a frosted shower curtain liner, designer clothing and shoes, a nose hair trimmer.

There were more than a dozen pairs of Air Jordans, including one with a "gold toe" design. Other alleged purchases included an Apple laptop, a sleeper sofa from Crate & Barrel, a 24-inch gold chain necklace, a 1980s-style prom king costume and a white-gold pinkie ring.

In Washington's federal trial court, prosecutors said those purchases were part of a months-long spending spree in which an office manager at a major U.S. law firm misused a firm credit card, making more than $400,000 in unauthorized payments and transfers to a personal PayPal account. The alleged victim: Morrison & Foerster.

The case against Andrew Robertson, who worked in the Washington and Northern Virginia offices of Morrison & Foerster, was unsealed in November, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for later this month. Robertson, who worked at the firm from February 2017 to November 2018, when he was fired, was arrested in New Jersey last year. He is free on $250,000 bond pending trial.

Prosecutors in Washington haven't said anything publicly about the case since it was unsealed, and the government did not provide any comment in response to questions from The National Law Journal.

Robertson's lawyer, David Bos, an assistant federal defender in Washington, declined to comment Friday.

The U.S. attorney's office in Washington is led by Jessie Liu, a former partner at the law firms Morrison & Foerster and Jenner & Block. Liu left Morrison & Foerster in April 2017 after only one year at the firm to join the U.S. Treasury Department, where she was deputy general counsel before her confirmation as Washington's top federal prosecutor.

Jessie Liu Jessie Liu, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint in October against Robertson alleging mail fraud, and he was arrested the following month, according to court records. Prosecutors initially filed the complaint under seal, citing concerns Robertson might flee or try to destroy or conceal evidence if he became aware of the investigation.

A spokesperson for Morrison & Foerster said the firm terminated Robertson and informed law enforcement after it "discovered his alleged stealing of firm property."

"Mr. Robertson's actions did not impact any of the firm's clients. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement on this matter," the spokesperson told The National Law Journal.

The prosecutors on the Robertson case includes two lawyers who worked on matters tied to the special counsel's Russia investigation: Kathryn Rakoczy and Adam Jed. Another prosecutor who has appeared in the case, Molly Gaston, played a leading role in the trial of Greg Craig, a former Obama White House counsel who was acquitted last year of misleading the Justice Department about his past work for Ukraine. Craig's case, while handled by career prosecutors, spun off of Mueller's investigation.

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Agents allege unauthorized personal purchases

In an affidavit supporting the warrant for Robertson's arrest, a Secret Service agent provided a detailed account of how Robertson allegedly bilked Morrison & Foerster for more than a year. The firm, which is merging its Washington and northern Virginia offices this year, is not named in the complaint.

Laying out the alleged fraud scheme, a Secret Service agent, Alexander Scanzera, said Robertson received a Bank of America credit card within a week of joining Morrison & Foerster, with instructions that it was to be used only for "business-related purchases that are for the office or firm operations." HIs responsibilities as an office operations manager included "purchasing and approving purchase orders for new office supplies, renovations, and office catering," court records show. He reported to the firm's director of administration.

From April 2017 until October 2018, Robertson, according to Scanzera, used the card to make thousands of dollars in purchases from Amazon.com and Crate & Barrel, using his position in the law firm's Washington and Northern Virginia offices to approve fraudulent invoices to cover up the nature of the expenses.

Robertson's use of the credit card extended beyond name-brand items to also include covering groceries and personal expenses, including $45,000 in charges "for storage units for his own personal items," the agent wrote. Robertson also used the card to transfer nearly $275,000 to his PayPal account, allowing him to move the funds into his personal Bank of America checking account, according to the agent's filing.

In an alleged attempt to cover up the transfers, investigators said Roberston created false invoices and made false entries into Morrison & Foerster's accounting software, suggesting the payments to his PayPal account were for catering bills. The Secret Service agent said the catering company had, in fact, provided services to the firm "on only about seven occasions" in 2017 and 2018, for a total of about $12,000.

"To further try to conceal this scheme, PayPal records show, Robertson changed the account information associated with his personal PayPal account to mimic the name and address" of the catering company, Scanzera wrote in the court filing.

Morrison & Foerster, which reportedly earned more than $1 billion in revenue in 2018, detected Robertson's conduct in October 2018 during an internal audit.

The firm reported Robertson to law enforcement in December 2018. In July, law enforcement officials conducted a search of the residence in hopes of recovering some of the items he allegedly purchased with the law firm card.

But the apartment was empty.