A Wisconsin attorney who was found to have submitted false receipts for reimbursement to her employer must serve a six-month suspension.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin wrote in its Dec. 18 opinion that the legal community deserves assurance that Beth M. Bant has “successfully demonstrated to this court” that she has tried to remedy “the causes of her misbehavior.”
Bant was fired from her in-house counsel job at an insurance company soon after it was discovered that she had filed fraudulent expense reports, according to the court. One was for an American Bar Association event that she didn’t attend. Bant voluntarily reimbursed the company about $1,600.
A referee assigned to investigate misconduct charges determined that Bant’s actions violated a state professional conduct rule prohibiting acting dishonestly.
He recommended a six-month suspension. The court said that he found Bant’s deceitful behavior showed “specially poor judgment given that she was not only an attorney but also a certified public accountant and a certified fraud examiner.” It also noted that she had drafted the ethics handbook for employees at her company.
In affirming the suspension, the court said that “precedent demonstrates that this court takes a dim view of a lawyer’s creation and use of false documentation for the purpose of misleading others.”
The case is Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Bant, 2019 BL 483129, Wis., No. 2018AP540-D, 12/18/19.
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