Disbarred Attorney Sentenced for Misusing Funds

Neal Landers, 46, of Duluth was sentenced Thursday (March 21) in U.S District Court in Atlanta to two years and three months in prison for using funds from real estate transactions he oversaw for his personal use.

“Landers violated the law and the trust of his clients when he used his firm’s escrow account as his own personal piggy bank,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates in a news release.

Landers exploited his position as a real estate closing attorney by misappropriating funds from closings beginning in 2007, according to Yates, the charges, and other information presented in court.

When Landers received money transfers into his escrow account from several real estate closings, he did not distribute the funds promptly as required. He deliberately delayed paying out the funds for weeks and sometimes months.

Instead, Landers would use the escrowed funds to pay parties from previously completed transactions. He also transferred funds, in amounts that far exceeded any closing fees and/or costs, from the escrow fund to his business checking account. Landers then used that money to pay personal expenses.

U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. sentenced Landers. After Landers serves his sentence in federal prison, he will be subjected to three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay more than $850,000 in restitution.

The Landers case was investigated by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey W. Davis prosecuted the case.

The Georgia Bar Association disbarred Landers in 2008.