Ex-Prosecutor Sentenced for Embezzlement : Courts: Officials say Michael T. Kenney lived lavishly with about $2 million in stolen money from clients, most of which they can’t trace. He receives a 7-year prison term.

A former federal prosecutor, characterized as “the embodiment of the word shyster ,” was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for embezzling nearly $2 million from clients of his Santa Ana law practice.

Michael T. Kenney, formerly an assistant U.S. attorney and FBI agent, pleaded guilty to grand theft charges in March for embezzling $1.9 million given to him by or on behalf of 14 clients. At least a dozen of those clients have filed civil lawsuits against the lawyer, who was disbarred in February.

Even as his criminal case came to a close, what Kenney did with the embezzled money remained a mystery. Prosecutors said that he led a lavish lifestyle and worked out of an elegant office in Santa Ana but that they cannot find the bulk of the missing funds.

“It’s still a mystery to me,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter W. Huelsenbeck. “Many of the transactions were cash or untraceable.”

Kenney told prosecutors that most or all of the money he pilfered from clients went to another client from whom he stole money in 1986. He has not named that person, prosecutors said.

“Although the circumstances of that case are disputed, the fact remains that I could not repay the monies as promptly as demanded,” Kenney wrote in a statement to the court. “This led to a ‘take-from-Peter-to-pay-Paul’ situation.”

According to court documents, Kenney first came under scrutiny after the county Probation Department failed to receive $300,000 in restitution due from two of his clients. The clients later proved that the money had been deposited into Kenney’s bank account.

Kenney could manipulate his clients into believing anything he said, according to his probation officer, Will Manson.

“One only has to talk to him a short time to realize he undoubtedly utilized his charm and personality to weasel his way into his client’s confidence, where he then systematically went about lying and cheating them out of whatever desired, usually large sums of money,” Manson stated in the pre-sentencing report.

“He is the embodiment of the word shyster .”

In one case, Kenney represented a man who was struck by a truck in 1984. In 1987, the truck driver’s insurance company sent a $300,000 settlement check to Kenney made payable to his client and Kenney, court documents said. For the next three years, Kenney told his client that he was still trying to negotiate a settlement.

In 1990, his client flew from his home in Arizona to Santa Ana for what Kenney said would be a hearing in the case, the records said. When the client arrived, Kenney met the man outside of court and told him that the hearing had been continued. It wasn’t until the man hired another lawyer that they discovered the 1987 settlement.

When Kenney became aware he was under investigation, he contacted prosecutors to arrange to meet with them to discuss the matter. However, Kenney always canceled the meetings, according to court documents. He was arrested June 21, 1991, in a Sylmar motel.