Ex-Controller of Bar Assn. Admits Theft

The former controller of the Beverly Hills Bar Assn. has admitted to embezzling more than $800,000 from the lawyer group -- funds earmarked, in part, to pay for law school scholarships and offer free legal services to the poor.

David Alan Wolfe, who had worked for the bar association for four years, confessed early this year to secretly forging signatures on checks, pilfering the group’s coffers before anyone noticed the money was gone.

“He gambled it all away,” said his lawyer, George F. Bird Jr. of Torrance. Wolfe, 36, is scheduled to be sentenced next month in federal court and faces 30 months in prison under a plea agreement with prosecutors, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Kendra S. McNally.

“It has been devastating because he left us with a bare cupboard and, even worse, he left us with unpaid bills,” said Marc R. Staenberg, president-elect and interim executive director of the 73-year-old professional organization that serves 15,000 lawyers working in and around Beverly Hills.

As a result of Wolfe’s deception, the association’s longtime executive director, Bert Z. Tigerman, resigned. Colleagues said Tigerman was deeply upset by the embezzlement. The stress exacerbated existing health problems for the 75-year-old lawyer, said bar President Stephen F. Rohde.

Tigerman wasn’t the only one affected by the theft and the sense of betrayal it caused.

“We grew to trust him and look to him for our financial record-keeping,” said Rohde of Wolfe. “It was a total shock.”

Wolfe began the thefts by cashing checks made payable to himself as “custodian of petty cash,” according to court documents. He later forged Tigerman’s signature on checks until he had drained the association and its separate charitable foundation of $823,735.

Wolfe’s lawyer, Bird, said his client attended counseling and Gamblers Anonymous meetings and went to authorities after seeking help for his problem.

Staenberg, an entertainment lawyer, said Wolfe confessed when “there wasn’t much left to take.”

Wolfe admitted he took the money in a videotaped statement to bar officials in January, then offered a similar statement to FBI agents in May, court documents show. He will serve a little less time in prison for his “acceptance of responsibility” under federal sentencing guidelines.

In a separate civil action, Wolfe agreed to repay the organization for all of the money he embezzled.

Meanwhile, Staenberg said the association is vigorously pursuing other avenues of recovery, including insurance and third-party liability for its unauthorized financial losses.

In the meantime, association leaders have had to borrow money to keep the organization’s doors open. They are asking each of their 3,500 members to contribute at least $300 so the association can pay its operating expenses, repay the loan and begin replenishing reserves.

So far, 200 lawyers, judges and law firms have donated more than $160,000 through a newly created Friends of the Bar emergency appeal, according to bar leaders.

Though the association has not had to cancel events or lay off any of its nine remaining employees, Staenberg said the group had to suspend long-standing charitable contributions, including the annual presentation of as much as $20,000 in scholarships for law students.

“It is a further injury and hurt to us that we can’t be supportive of other agencies,” said Rohde. “We can’t keep up our generosity.”

Among the hardest hit will be the law students who won’t get the bar’s help this year to pay for tuition and books, and charitable groups.

The lawyers of Beverly Hills, through their bar association, have contributed more than $1 million since 1970 to encourage future lawyers, judges and lawmakers complete their studies.

The Beverly Hills Bar Assn. also is a founding partner of Public Counsel, the nation’s largest public interest law firm whose lawyer-volunteers last year donated the equivalent of $47 million in free legal services to the poor.

Until the theft, the association had contributed about $30,000 annually -- money not available now.

Staenberg said the association has changed its fiscal procedures and controls but declined to discuss them in detail, citing security concerns.

But at least one member believes the changes are too little too late. Neil Anthony Scotti, who joined the bar three years ago after 25 years of practicing law in Beverly Hills, said he was disturbed when he received two solicitations from the association asking him for more money.

“No one apologized.... No one offered to disband the Beverly Hills Bar Assn.... I thought that [money] was the last thing they should ask for,” he said. “If this came under your watch, you have to step up.”

Staenberg, however, said “one bad apple should not be an indictment of the organization. We are not putting gold toilets in the bathroom.”

“It is not Enron,” Staenberg said. “It is not Tyco, and to even suggest so is not to understand.”

As for Wolfe, Scotti was skeptical about his confession. “It’s a nice gesture and you hope it’s going to help you at sentencing,” Scotti said. “He’ll get a sweet deal. He’ll do less time than Martha Stewart.”