FBI
24 Jul 2019, 12:13 GMT+10
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - After a state trooper was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while on duty in 2005, his young daughter received a settlement from a lawsuit. The money was placed in a trust with a court-appointed guardian until she became an adult.
Yet when the young woman wanted to access her money in 2017, she found it was mostly gone. The court-appointed attorney stole more than $1 million from the girl. Also gone were years of market gains the money would have made had it been properly invested.
The attorney, Jackie Garton, 54, (Pictured) was a respected member of the community in Dickson, Tennessee. He was also a friend of the victim's father. When Garton wouldn't turn over the money, the daughter hired her own attorney, who contacted the FBI.
"This is a child whose father was killed in the line of duty, a really vulnerable victim," said Special Agent Joy Wright. Wright investigated the case out of the FBI's Memphis Field Office, along with the Internal Revenue Service. "What kind of person would steal from this child? She already lost her father, and now she has been victimized a second time."
Investigators learned that for the first few years, Garton managed the victim's funds honestly. But in 2009, he began faking disbursement requests to the investment firm and pocketing the money. He used the victim's money to pay for his daily living expenses and more luxurious ones, like high-end cars, a boat, and a house. Garton had also stolen smaller amounts from other clients' trusts, though the trooper's daughter was his primary victim.
The investigative team doesn't know what made Garton go from honest attorney to thief, other than simple greed. Part of the stolen funds were even used to send Garton's own daughter-who was roughly the same age as his victim-to college.
"The victim had an attorney working in her interest, but many people didn't listen to the victim's concerns because Garton was so well-known in the community. But the FBI did," said Special Agent Suzanne Nash, who also worked the case.
In December 2018, Garton pleaded guilty to wire fraud, tax fraud, and aggravated identity theft. In April 2019, he was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison.
Garton had to give up some of his ill-gotten gains so the proceeds could be returned to his victims. Through the asset forfeiture process, some of the victim's money will be returned to her, though it will likely be only a portion of what she lost.
"We're going to get her as much money back as we can, and I hope she can move forward with her adult life and live her dreams," Wright said. "I hope she gets a chance to use this money to do something that will make her happy."
Get a daily dose of New Orleans Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to New Orleans Sun.
More InformationNEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks rose again Friday after momentous gains a day earlier. Gains on Friday however ...
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - Since the Trump administration began reshaping trade policy in early 2018, U.S. farmers have endured fluctuating prices ...
Operating as a small business is tough at the best of times, but Eskom's rolling blackouts has really thrown a ...
The Xinjiang regional government in China's far west is deleting data, destroying documents, tightening controls on information and has held ...
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India] Dec 14 (ANI/BusinessWire India): MGM Healthcare, a multi-specialty quaternary care hospital in the heart of the ...
Former Tongaat Hulett interim chief executive officer Sydney Mtsambiwa has stepped down as chair of a Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed bank, ...
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - New Zealand Defence Force and police officers successfully recovered six bodies from Whakaari/White Island on Friday, ...
LONDON - Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party will win an overwhelming victory in Britain's election with a majority of ...
BETHLEHEM, Palestinian territories - Israel announced Thursday that Christians in the Gaza Strip will be barred from visiting Holy cities ...
NIAMEY, Niger - At least 71 soldiers were killed and twelve others sustained injuries in a deadly terror attack that ...
BAGHDAD, Iraq - As protests in Iraq enter their third month, the numbers of arrests, abductions, and killings of protesters ...
SYDNEY, Australia - Two Australian schoolboys severely injured in the White Island volcano eruption in New Zealand on Monday have ...