An Alhambra attorney has acknowledged in a court filing that she misappropriated nearly $5 million in client funds, falsified bank records and failed to disclose a 2023 court judgment against her to the State Bar of California.
Divorce attorney Evie Pei Jeang pleaded no contest, the equivalent of a guilty plea, on June 18 in stipulations filed in the State Bar Court in Los Angeles. Jeang, who was admitted to the State Bar on Dec. 3, 2002, stipulated to the discipline of disbarment as well as monetary sanctions of up to $5,000.
In addition, she is required to make restitution of nearly $2.5 million, plus 10% interest annually beginning from December of last year, to a client trust fund for Honglu “Catherine” Zhang and Brian Daly. Jeang had overseen a trust fund for the couple in the wake of a marriage dissolution proceeding in 2015 and the sale of the parties’ residential property for $6.5 million, according to the June 18 court document.
Jeang conceded to aggravating circumstances, including misconduct that significantly harmed a client or the public, multiple acts of wrongdoing and a failure to make restitution when ordered by a court.
“Client trust account violations, including misappropriations of funds, are frequently the subject of client complaints,” the State Bar’s chief trial counsel, George Cardona, said in an email to the Southern California Record. “Given this, in 2023 the Office of Chief Trial Counsel established a team of investigators and attorneys dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of client trust account violations.”
The escrow account overseen by Jeang contained more than $4.8 million in September of 2015. None of the funds were supposed to be released without written agreement among the parties and their attorneys, except for some tax payments, attorney payments and an initial distribution of $100,000 to Zhang.
Prior to May 2017, however, Jeang made cash withdrawals exceeding $500,000 from the account and American Express payments of more than $240,000, according to the June 18 filing. And in May 2017, the attorney withdrew more than $2.5 million from the trust account, leaving it with zero funds.
Zhang later retained her own counsel to obtain an accounting of the trust fund. A paper trail of financial records showed that Jeang falsified a bank statement to show another trust account she opened at East West Bank had a balance of more than $4.5 million, according to the State Bar filing.
Jeang also attempted to file a challenge to disqualify a judge overseeing a hearing on the accounting dispute based on statements later deemed to be false and misleading, the June 18 filing says.
East West Bank eventually wired the balance of the trust account, which was just under $2 million, to the trust account of Zhang’s attorney, Lee W. Salisbury.
“Once Salisbury discovered that respondent’s East West Bank (client trust fund) failed to maintain the entirety of the trust funds she was obligated to hold on the parties’ behalf, he submitted a State Bar complaint on behalf of Zhang on or about March 21, 2022,” the statement of stipulations says.
Zhang later accused Jeang and the Ideal Legal Group Inc. of diverting, withholding, spending or misappropriating at least $4.3 million of the trust funds.
The actions amount to multiple acts of moral turpitude, dishonesty, fraud, malfeasance and willful violations of the state’s Business and Professions Code, according to the June 18 filing.