Another innocent victim

From the ABA Journal --

Criminal Justice
Lawyer Accused of Stealing $2.4M from Corporate Client, Gambling It Away

A Milwaukee lawyer has been charged with embezzling more than $2.4 million from a corporate client and losing most of it at a casino.

Lawyer Thomas Koch, 46, was charged with embezzling the money from Dallas company Affiliated Computer Services over the course of five years, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Koch’s lawyer, Steve Kohn, said his client no longer practices law and is in treatment for a gambling addiction. "He couldn't stop himself," Kohn said told the Journal Sentinel. "That's the sad truth here."

Affiliated Computer Service does work for medical insurers. It hired Koch to make sure insurance clients were pursuing lawsuits to recover costs for injuries where possible, the story says. In 2007, a new litigation manager pressed Koch for updates, and when he did not reply, discovered that about 270 of 360 open claims had been settled. None of the proceeds had been forwarded to ACS, prosecutors say.