Florida Lawyer Gets 15 Years in Prison for Swiping $2 Million From Disabled Clients

A Tampa, Florida attorney that once specialized in wills, trusts, and estate planning has been sentenced to 15-years by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Nash. David Land Whigham, who regularly represented charities and disabled litigants, pled guilty in November of 2017 to embezzling more than $2 million from his clients.

In 2016, the Florida Bar discovered he’d overstepped his bounds when the Bank of Tampa flagged strange activity in his trust accounts. The bar filed a petition for disciplinary revocation, citing that before his death in 2011, a client had requested that Whigham distribute more than $900,000 to the Shriner’s Hospital for Children and a schizophrenia research foundation in Massachusetts, but Whigham failed to do so.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement found at least nine victims had lost money to Whigham, who spent the stolen cash on his mortgage, vacations, and other personal expenses and luxuries. He told the court that he could not explain his decision to embezzle the funds, but also added “I promise the court I’ll dedicate the rest of my life to making restitution.”

See Raychel Lean, Floria Lawyer Gets 15 Years in Prison for Swiping $2 Million From Disabled Clients, Daily Business Review, April 2, 2019.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Florida Probate Attorney) for bringing this article to my attention.