Wednesday, May 30, 2012 | 3:47 p.m.
A former Las Vegas lawyer pleaded guilty to defrauding clients and stealing their personal injury settlements, Nevada’s U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden announced Wednesday.
Lawrence J. Davidson, 45, pleaded guilty before Senior U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt to charges in three cases:
• 20 counts of mail fraud and four counts of money laundering;
• One count of making a false statement in a passport application, one count of aggravated identity theft and two counts of willfully failing to appear at court hearings;
• One count of violating his supervised release by failing to notify the probation office of a change of address.
He also had been charged with conspiracy and fraud related to the G-Sting investigation, but as part of the agreement, federal prosecutors will move to dismiss those charges at Davidson’s sentencing, said Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for Bogden. The G-Sting investigation was a federal investigation in the early 2000s into public corruption involving strip club owner Michael Galardi and his influencing of Clark County commissioners.
Officials said the binding plea agreement, which consolidates the cases, states that Davidson should be sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison and forced to pay $932,802 in restitution. Davidson would be able to withdraw his guilty plea if the sentencing judge seeks a different sentence, officials said.
In 2005, Davidson was convicted of forging a judge’s signature in a federal bankruptcy case. He was sentenced to six months in jail and three months of supervised release.
Davidson started his supervised release in February 2006, but he fled to Israel in September 2006 to avoid prosecution on the case involving theft of his clients’ settlements, officials said.
Davidson admitted in Wednesday’s plea agreement that he had used another person’s identity to obtain a U.S. passport in 2004, officials said.
Federal authorities charged Davidson in October 2006 with mail fraud and money laundering for negotiating personal-injury and medical-malpractice settlements from May 2003 to September 2004 without the authorization of his clients, officials said. Authorities said Davidson then used the settlement monies for his personal benefit.
Davidson, who was in Israel, failed to appear at a required federal court calendar call hearing related to the 2006 case and the trial, officials said.
Davidson defrauded at least 14 clients of more than $930,000, according to the plea agreement.
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