State Bar Issues Consumer Alert for San Francisco Attorney, 072417 CABJ, CBJ - July 2017 #03

State Bar issues consumer alert for San Francisco attorney

No. 2017 #03

California Bar Journal

July 24, 2017

The State Bar of California announced today that a San Francisco attorney has been charged with taking $100,000 he was supposed to use for a real estate transaction and falsely telling the client he needed to provide another $100,000 to complete the deal.

The State Bar recently posted a consumer alert on Dax Yeophantong Craven's profile page. If found culpable of the charges, Craven, 40, [bar #248583], would be subject to discipline for professional misconduct by the California Supreme Court, up to and including disbarment.

According to the notice of disciplinary charges filed by the State Bar's Office of Chief Trial Counsel on July 11, Craven's misconduct occurred when he was acting as a consultant to his client in a property exchange. The State Bar alleges that Craven received $200,000 in April 2015, transferring half to a title company on his client's behalf and misappropriating the other half for his own purposes. He then solicited another $100,000 from the client, falsely telling him it was needed to verify net worth for...