SF Attorney Indicted on Wire Fraud Charges

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - California attorney John Jason Gentry Mullins has been indicted in Federal Court on charges of wire fraud.

The grand jury's Sept. 17 indictment accuses Mullins and alleged co-conspirator Bradley Howell of collaborating on a scheme to defraud investors by promising to set up escrow accounts in exchange for down payments but pocketing the down payments instead.

According to the indictment, the investors wired their payments to an attorney-client trust account and Mullins sent those funds to Howell, falsely assuring the investors that Howell was an "innocent go-between."

Howell lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and the defrauded funds - hundreds of thousands of dollars - were held in his account at Fifth Third Bank, the indictment says.

Mullins's business address was in San Francisco, and he lived in the South Bay community of Saratoga.

He has been declared ineligible to practice law by the California state bar, and he is expected to be disbarred on Oct. 11.

Neither side could be reached for comment on Wednesday.

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