Ex-Law Firm Controller Pleads Guilty in $960K Theft Case

An ex-controller at a Washington law firm pleaded guilty this week to one count of wire fraud for siphoning nearly a million dollars from the firm’s account over a four-year period.

The defendant, Marc England, 44, of Covington La., funneled at least $961,404 from his former employer—intellectual property firm Roylance, Abrams, Berdo & Goodman—into his personal credit-card accounts.

The law firm spotted unauthorized payments and alerted the authorities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. England faces a range of 33 to 41 months in prison and a $75,000 fine. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set sentencing for Dec. 2.

“Hopefully the judge will have compassion and allow Mr. England to remain free and pay back his debt,” England’s defense attorney, solo practitioner G. Allen Dale, told The National Law Journal on Thursday.

England pocketed amounts ranging from $500 to $23,600 on 126 occasions between August 2008 and April 2012, according to court papers. He falsified payment slips to mask transactions from his direct supervisor—a partner at the firm, prosecutors said in the court papers.