Mayer Brown’s Former CIO Charged With Defrauding the Firm Out of a Whole Bunch of Money

Editor's note: The Probate Court of Cook County lawyers don't have to bilk their own firms...they bilk the helpless wards of the court.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com


Mayer Brown’s Former CIO Charged With Defrauding the Firm Out of a Whole Bunch of Money By Christopher Danzig

In a time when many law firms are relatively less stable than their employees would like, it’s definitely not good to hear about a Biglaw executive allegedly defrauding his firm out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But such is the world we live in. So let’s get to it: which former executive at Chicago-based Mayer Brown is facing pretty egregious fraud charges?

It’s the former chief information officer, David Tresch, who stands accused of defrauding the company out of nearly a million dollars. From the Chicago Tribune:

A former executive at Mayer Brown was arrested Thursday on federal charges that he allegedly defrauded the Chicago law firm of at least $850,000.
David Tresch, 51, of Itasca was Mayer Brown’s former chief information officer. He allegedly approved payments to a vendor for work that had not been performed and pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from that vendor, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.
FBI agents seized Thursday approximately $210,000 in bank accounts controlled by Tresch, as well as a camping trailer, a van, and a luxury automobile.
Tresch was released on a $100,000 partially-secured bond.

Ohhh boy. This does not look good. It’s kind of like a weird variation of that scene in Michael Clayton:
We’re not the guys you steal from. We’re the guys who fight in court for a living! Are you so f**king blind that you don’t even see what we are?
Biglaw attorneys work hard for their bucks. I imagine Mayer Brown partners are steaming mad about this. But at least it sounds like they are on top of the situation.
According to the Tribune, Tresch was fired in June “following an internal investigation” after working at Mayer Brown since 2004. When he was terminated, the firm also turned the case over to federal prosecutors.
Apparently the firm asked Tresch to stop using the unnamed IT vendor early last year due to cost cutting measures, but Tresch allegedly continued approving invoices and collecting checks anyway.
Well, at least we know he’s got the cash for a decent defense attorney.
Former Mayer Brown CIO arrested on fraud charge [Chicago Tribune]

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Biglaw, Chief Information Officer, CIO, David Tresch, Fraud, IT, Mayer Brown, Money, Technology, White-Collar Crime