Tanya Latoya Walters Powell

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Attorney acted for the Complainant in a property sale. After the sale, both parties' emails were compromised by fraudsters (Business Email Compromise targeting the Attorney's Hotmail account). Acting on spoofed email instructions, the Attorney wired the JMD proceeds (converted to USD) to a fraudster's account at Umpqua Bank in Oregon; the Complainant never received his money. The Panel found the Attorney honestly believed she was acting on genuine instructions and had no dishonest intent, and acquitted her on Canon IV(s) (inexcusable/deplorable negligence) because cybercrime awareness in 2018 was not established beyond reasonable doubt. However, it found her guilty of breaching Canon IV(r) (failure to deal expeditiously and keep client informed), Canon VII(b)(ii) (failure to account for client monies - money held on trust and paid to a fraudster on unauthorized instructions constituted a breach of trust), and Canon I(b) (failure to uphold the dignity of the profession). The Panel deferred sanction, directing a date be fixed for the Attorney to be heard in mitigation.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Lackluster and unsatisfactory effort to help the Complainant recover the funds
• Failed to take a secondary authentication step to verify the change of payment instructions
• Delayed remedial measures - only in November 2019 (over a year later) were email security fixes made
• Gave unsatisfactory explanation (relying solely on email correspondence) for not calling the client to confirm changed instructions

Mitigating factors:

• The Attorney was herself a victim of a Business Email Compromise/cybercrime
• She honestly believed she was communicating with and acting on the instructions of the Complainant
• It was not established beyond reasonable doubt that in 2018 attorneys were widely aware of Business Email Compromise dangers (basis for acquittal on Canon IV(s))
• No dishonesty or intention to deprive the Complainant of the proceeds