South Florida lawyer charged with stealing $600K from dead client’s heirs
A disbarred Fort Lauderdale lawyer was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with embezzling more than $600,000 from the heirs of a deceased client.
John Spencer Jenkins, 54, formerly of Fort Lauderdale, was disbarred in July and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $612,507 to the estate of William L. Walters, a Wilton Manors man who died at 89 in 2021.
The money represented proceeds from the sale of Walters' home and belongings and was to be divided among family members, according to Florida Bar records. Instead it went to a trust controlled by Jenkins' Fort Lauderdale firm.
Jenkins, who appears to have moved to Pennsylvania earlier this year, is charged with three counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and three counts of money laundering, each of which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
