Kenneth Gerald Jones was admitted to the California Bar 24th November 1998, but has since been disbarred. Kenneth graduated from Seattle University SOL.

Lawyer Information

NameKenneth Gerald Jones
First Admitted24 November 1998 (25 years, 5 months ago)
StatusDisbarred
Bar Number196868

Contact

Phone Number925-451-2366
Fax Number925-451-2366

Schools

Law SchoolSeattle University SOL (Seattle WA)
Undergraduate SchoolUniversity of California at Los Angeles (CA)

Address

Current Address169 Firestone Dr
Walnut Creek, CA 94598-3659
Map
Previous Address188 Jefferson St
Ste 619
Newark, NJ 07105-1622

History

19 October 2016Disbarred (7 years, 6 months ago)
Disbarment 15-O-13439
1 July 2016Not eligible to practice law in CA (7 years, 10 months ago)
Suspended, failed to pay fees
19 May 2016Not eligible to practice law in CA (7 years, 11 months ago)
Ordered inactive 15-O-13439
24 November 1998Admitted to the State Bar of California (25 years, 5 months ago)

Discipline Summaries

October 19, 2016

Lawyer disbarred for siphoning $600K from his law firm

A Bay Area attorney who stole more than $605,000 from his former law firm through phony invoices has been disbarred. Kenneth Gerald Jones [#196868], of Walnut Creek, kept up the scheme involving Bowles & Verna LLC, for more than five years until it was discovered, according to a stipulation he entered into with the State Bar.

“When caught, respondent admitted to the actions and stated that he had a ‘spending problem’ and had been living beyond his means and needed the additional income,” the stipulation said.

Jones ultimately signed over a life insurance policy with a cash value of about $50,000 and has been ordered to repay the remaining $555,454.90 he took plus interest in restitution.

According to the stipulation, in February 2010, Jones created a PayPal account for West Coast Legal Reprographics & Court Reporting Inc., a fictitious company, as well as two email addresses for the company which he claimed was located at a nonexistent San Francisco address. That month, he began issuing a series of fake invoices, supposedly for mediation, document production and other services, which he paid using his company-issued American Express card, funneling money into the PayPal account.

“Respondent would then advise [Bowles & Verna’s] accounting department that the American Express charges for Legal Reprographics were to be coded to various BV internal client accounts,” the stipulation said. “Each invoice that was billed to BV’s American Express card was paid for by [Bowles & Verna].”

Soon after, Jones established a small business account at Bank of America and requested a routing number that allowed him to transfer money from PayPal to the business account. He also made repeated misrepresentations to the accounting department at his firm about the work supposedly performed by Legal Reprographics. At times, Legal Reprographics invoices were billed to clients, at least one of whom paid, and Jones pocketed client payments for services provided by his firm.

“Respondent instructed the accounting department to ‘write off’ that amount to the client’s bill without turning the funds over to [the firm], or informing [the firm] that he was personally receiving the money,” the stipulation said. The stipulation also notes that Jones’ misconduct caused significant harm to his clients and that the firm not only reimburse clients that improperly paid bills but “wrote off more than $250,000 in accounts receivable as a gesture of good will to maintain its existing clients.”