‘The cruelty is astounding’: Tacoma lawyer sentenced for stealing $530K from disabled client

A former lawyer in Tacoma was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday for wire fraud after he embezzled more than $530,000 from a vulnerable client’s account.

Colby Parks, 65, stole the funds from a client who received approximately $1.66 million from a motorcycle accident where she was compensated for significant permanent injuries she suffered, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

In 2010, Parks became the trustee for a living trust that was designed to pay for the victim’s expenses after she was injured in the motorcycle accident, according to records filed in the case.

Tacoma lawyer steals funds from elderly woman over 10 years

Throughout the first seven years that Parks was the trustee, he stole funds from the account for his personal use, ultimately leaving $20,000 in the trust. In 2018, Parks coerced the victim into taking a reverse mortgage on her home and used the proceeds to fund the trust.

“At some point, your ethical barometer had to go off over the ten years that you were stealing from a disabled elderly person,” U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said. “You transitioned from need to greed, and that transpired into entitlement.”

He continued to make transfers with the account for his personal use. Account records revealed that Parks repeatedly transferred funds to his bank account, then, a day or so later, made a payment for his personal credit card equal to the amount of the transfer.

Parks made more than 600 transfers of the victim’s funds into accounts under his control. Over the course of 10 years, Parks transferred more than $880,000 from the victim’s account into his own. DOJ noted Parks paid himself at least $530,000 more than what he was entitled to receive as fees for serving as a trustee.

By 2019, there was only $15 left in the victim’s account. The victim was forced to sell her home, but Parks continued to steal the proceeds from the sale by claiming the woman owed him money he had advanced to her.

“The cruelty in this case is astounding,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “For more than a decade, Mr. Parks abused the trust of a vulnerable client who thought he was her friend. He lied to her, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, and ultimately left her with a drained account.”

Parks would repeatedly tell the victim that she was spending too much money; however, the amount of money the woman received in disbursements was a fraction of what Parks secretly transferred out of the account.

Washington’s Adult Protective Services (APS) investigated Parks, who initially claimed to have been paid a flat rate of $24,000 per year. APS requested additional documentation, and Parks changed his statement to reflect that he received more than $54,000 per year.

DOJ mentioned that Parks collected “well over” $80,000 from the victim each year. Following a Washington State Bar investigation, Parks resigned his law license instead of being disciplined, which avoided disbarment.

“For ten years, I asked for printed statements. I never reviewed one invoice … you were the person I trusted with my funds for 10 years. You have devastated my life,” the victim said to Parks in court.

“What Parks did was not a mistake. It was not sloppy accounting. It was not an ‘unfortunate’ civil matter that could be resolved by money,” U.S. Attorney Cindy Chang wrote in asking for a 33-month prison sentence. “Victim 1 is a victim, not a ‘complaining party.’ And Parks’ conduct is not, as Parks references in his letter, merely a ‘fireable offense.’ What Parks did was a knowing, willful crime with devastating impacts on a vulnerable victim.”

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