Disbarred lawyer in Oregon pleads guilty to mail fraud
February 11th, 2010 - 2:29 pm ICT by BNO NewsSEATTLE (BNO NEWS) – A disbarred lawyer of Gig Harbor, Oregon on Wednesday pleaded guilty to mail fraud in credit card debt elimination scheme, prosecutors said.
Bruce Hawkins, 50, a disbarred attorney pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in Tacoma to Mail Fraud. Hawkins was named in an eight count indictment returned under seal in April 2009. The indictment detailed how Hawkins promoted a fraudulent debt elimination scheme from 2003 to 2005. He took fees from more than 1000 debtors after falsely representing that he could eliminate their credit card debt. Gaining more than $880,000 through the scheme, Hawkins faces an agreed upon sentence by the parties of three years in prison.
According to the records in the case, Hawkins used his status as an attorney to promote his false legal theory that national banks could not lend credit, and therefore consumers did not have to repay their debt. He allegedly paid other co-conspirators to every debtor they sent to his program, as a finders-fee.
Hawkins was disbarred by the Washington State Bar Association in February of 2006.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
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