A civil lawsuit filed in Polk County accuses the owner of a law firm that recently closed its three offices of diverting nearly $1.8 million from a client’s trust fund to his personal account.
In the lawsuit, the surviving children of a Pennsylvania man say that Jason Penrod confessed to depleting the trust fund and using the money to gamble at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.
Penrod is the owner of Family Elder Law, which abruptly closed its offices in Lake Wales, Lakeland and Sebring in July.
Charles Anderson and Sherry Prevoznik, the children of David D. Anderson, filed the lawsuit Aug. 21 in Circuit Court for the 10th Judicial Circuit, based in Bartow. The 53-page complaint accuses Penrod of conversion, civil theft and breach of trust and seeks damages of more than $50,000. It also seeks Penrod’s removal as trustee of the fund.
The complaint, filed by a Brandon law firm, says that Penrod drafted a living trust in 2014 for David D. Anderson, with Penrod designated as successor trustee upon Anderson’s death and Charles Anderson and Prevoznik as sole beneficiaries. David D. Anderson died in 2021, the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, Penrod traveled to Pennsylvania in June and met with Charles Anderson at a coffee shop “to discuss the winding down of the administration of the Trust.” Penrod gave Anderson copies of letters written to both plaintiffs in which he confessed to moving money from the trust and into his own personal account beginning in October 2023, the complaint says.
Penrod confessed that over the next three months, he frequently transferred money from Anderson’s trust into his personal account until the funds were exhausted, the complaint says. Penrod then wired the money to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and subsequently lost all of it, the lawsuit says.
In July, the plaintiffs’ lawyers called Penrod to ask if the contents of the letters were true, and he confirmed that they were, according to the complaint.
Richard Greenberg, listed as Penrod’s lawyer in a petition to the Florida Supreme Court, said Tuesday that he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it.
The Florida Bar, which oversees all lawyers in the state, has confirmed that disciplinary charges against Penrod are pending. Penrod filed a petition to the Florida Supreme Court on Aug. 8, requesting disciplinary revocation, the loss of his ability to practice law in Florida, with the option of applying later for readmission.
If the Supreme Court grants the petition, all pending disciplinary cases against Penrod would be dismissed.
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The complaint includes a copy of the typed letter that Penrod allegedly wrote to the plaintiffs.
“Personally, I have become aware over some years now that I am dealing with post-traumatic stress endured from childhood experiences,” the letter reads. “Over time, this stress and unresolved trauma began overtaking various facets of my life, particularly my mental health.”
In the letter, Penrod says that depression and anxiety caused him to become isolated and to avoid stressful situations. Though he attempted therapy, a “compulsion overcame me,” and he visited the casino more frequently, the letter says.
“I would gamble until I exhausted our family’s savings, my law firm’s profits; all the while avoiding reality and any type of feeling (which is the only way I can explain not fearing the consequences of my irrational and immoral behavior),” the letter says. “And then, once I received more money, I would gamble and lose those monies.”
Describing himself as “a raging addict,” Penrod considered the money he took from the trust as temporary loans he would repay with interest, the letter says. Penrod wrote that he hit “rock bottom” and realized he could not repay the money, writing that he expected to lose his law license and be separated from his wife and three children as he went to prison.
Penrod, who began practicing in 2003, met with a criminal lawyer and decided that the only plausible way to repay the money would be by continuing to work, the letter says.
“I humbly ask that you allow me to continue to work and pay you back,” the letter says. “This is obviously self-serving, since it keeps me from going to prison and allows me to be with my family. And while I know God’s grace is real, as I wouldn’t be here were it not, I cannot control whatever whether you forgive me.”
Penrod proposed a repayment plan based on a 10-year promissory note, with payments made quarterly. The letter mentions options for early payments: transferring ownership or equity of his Lake Wales office building; naming the plaintiffs as beneficiaries on a life-insurance policy; accessing his 401k funds; and sharing profits from his law firm, which grosses over $2 million annually, he wrote.
The letter also offers to pay any damages Penrod might receive from two potential lawsuits — one against a psychiatrist for recommending an antipsychotic drug “without disclosing its tendency to enhance compulsive risky behavior such as gambling” and another against the Seminole Hard Rock Casino.
In the petition to the Supreme Court, Penrod agreed to repay the Clients’ Security Fund for any funds it has paid or may pay for claims resulting from his misconduct. The Florida Bar created the Clients’ Security Fund to provide monetary relief to people who may have suffered a loss because of misappropriation by an attorney and is funded by a portion of annual membership fees.
Jason Penrod formed Family Elder Law in 2013, with its main office in Lake Wales. The firm shuttered its offices there and in Lakeland and Sebring in July with no warning to clients. The company’s website is no longer active, and calls to its phone numbers yield a recording saying the firm “is in the process of closing its operations.”
A spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said that the agency is investigating Penrod and Family Elder Law. A spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit said he could neither confirm nor deny any possible criminal investigation.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino had not responded to a request for comment.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
