Tax consultant charged in stealing from lawyer

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 9:42 a.m.

A tax consultant was indicted last week on charges that he stole more than $670,000 in federal income tax money from personal injury attorney Glen Lerner.

The indictment, unsealed Friday before District Judge Michael Douglas, charges Dennis Franklin Morgan with 21 counts of theft.

Authorities allege that Morgan, who worked as an independent tax consultant, stole about $671,327 of the law firm's federal income tax payments between December 1999 and February 2002.

The money allegedly was taken in increments ranging from $4,800 to $104,000, according to the indictment.

"The evidence showed that there were taxes that were not being paid for given tax years," Chief Deputy District Attorney James Sweetin said.

Douglas issued a summons for Morgan to make his first court appearance before District Judge Kathy Hardcastle on June 18.

Morgan's attorney, Steve Wolfson, did not immediately return calls for comment.

Lerner this morning said: "Attorneys are no different than any other business. If you own a business, you are always a potential victim of crime."

Prosecutors alleged that Morgan took dozens of checks Lerner gave him to pay the IRS and cashed the checks at Lerner's bank instead, Sweetin said.

Lerner's firm was forced to pay taxes twice as a result of the alleged theft, Lerner said.

"The misappropriated monies were to pay IRS taxes and the IRS never received those initial payments," he said. "Thus, we had to pay those taxes."