United States Attorney Eastern District of Virginia
News Release
For Immediate Release October 10, 2006 Alexandria, Virginia	For further information contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office 703-842-4050

Former D.C. Government Attorney Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Private Practice Clients

Washington, D.C. - A Springfield, Virginia man and former D.C. government attorney for nearly 30 years, Billy W. King, has pled guilty to interstate transportation of stolen property in connection with a scheme to defraud clients in his private law practice by stealing their insurance settlement checks, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

King, 55, pled guilty to the charges today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on January 19, 2007, by the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, he faces a likely sentence of six to 12 months of incarceration, which could include probation.

The government’s investigation revealed that King worked for the D.C. government from about 1978 until his recent retirement in 2006. From 1978 to 1993, King served as the General Counsel of the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance. From 1993 until September 2006, he served as a Labor Advisor with the D.C. Department of Human Services. Starting in the 1990s, King also ran a private law practice with his wife, the Law Offices of Billy W. King, located at 4014 Georgia Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C.

In his private law practice, King represented individuals in small civil tort cases, including automobile accidents and accidental injuries. King took on cases on a contingency fee basis, receiving a percentage of the overall settlement or jury award in the case. He likewise often agreed to pay medical bills for his client out of any settlement amount. King typically made demands on, or brought lawsuits against insurance companies for his clients, usually settling the case with the insurance company. The insurance company, typically out of state, would then send a settlement check to King at his law office in Washington, D.C. requiring the signature of King and his clients.

From early 2000 through 2001, King engaged in a scheme to defraud his clients by settling lawsuits with insurance companies on their behalf, failing to tell the clients about the settlement, having the insurance company send the settlement check to him, forging the clients’ signature on the insurance checks and depositing the money into his law firm bank account. King then kept all of the money for his own use, failing to pay his clients or their medical bills. As a result, clients sometimes faced collection actions from their medical providers.

The defendant acknowledged at his plea executing this scheme with regard to two D.C. clients in particular for a total loss amount of approximately $25,000. He has also been disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia for five years.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the outstanding investigative work of D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking Investigator Carl Ditchey and FBI Special Agent Michael P. Kelly. He also praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney James G. Flood, who is prosecuting the case.