Attorney Sentenced for Probate Theft

Seventy-year-old Arizona attorney Rodney Matheson was found guilty on charges of theft and fraud for stealing money from his deceased clients’ probate accounts.  Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bruce R. Cohen sentenced Matheson to 2 ½ years in prison and also ordered Matheson repay more than $1 million to an attorney representing the Mayo Clinic.  Cohen placed Matheson on probation on a fraudulent schemes conviction for seven years, which will begin once he is released from prison. 

According to court documents, Matheson orchestrated an elaborate “shell game” by stealing money from several estates in order to satisfy a court order for payment of $800,000 to the Mayo Clinic, the major beneficiary of a third estate.  The fraud was uncovered when the Mayo Clinic filed a civil suit to collect $1.2 million left to the hospital as a beneficiary by the Mary Jane Schalow Trust.

See Disbarred East Valley Attorney Sentenced to Prison in Probate Theft Case, AZ Central, Apr. 21, 2015.