Kentucky lawyer who stole $400,000 from dead client’s estate is sentenced to prison.
A former Kentucky attorney who stole about $400,000 from the estate of a client who had died has been sentenced to three yeas in federal prison.
Brian Allen Logan, 51, who practiced in Frankfort, also owes of $178,381 in restitution to the estate as part of the sentence, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Logan prepared a will in August 2018 for a man identified in the federal case as J.E. State. Records identify the client as Jack Arnold Estes.
Estes died soon after and Logan was named executor of the estate, putting him in charge of disbursing the money.
Estes intended for his money to benefit charities that included a hospice organization, the American Cancer Society, a children’s hospital and animal shelters in Franklin and Woodford counties, according to court records.
But nine days after opening a bank account to handle money from the estate, Logan started stealing from the account, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea L. Mattingly Williams said in a sentencing memorandum.
Logan also paid his law firm $30,000 from the estate account for work he didn’t do; rented out a building Estes had owned and kept the payments for more than five years; and used a forged deed to transfer the property to a company he owned and then took out a loan on it, according to the prosecution memo.
Logan used money he took for personal expenses, including credit card payments, authorities said in the news release.
‘Stole money to fund his lifestyle’
Logan’s actions were a “brazen breach of trust,” Williams wrote in the memo.
“Logan, an attorney, was entrusted to carry out the dying wishes of J.E. and instead of doing so, he stole the money to fund his lifestyle,” the prosecutor wrote.
Family members and supporters of Logan said in letters to the court that he had worked ably as an attorney for many years, including taking child-welfare cases for little money, and that the thefts seemed completely out of character for him.
Logan’s mother said in a letter that many close to him didn’t see his struggles with depression, stress and anxiety “that were the root of his desperation to provide for his family and mask his troubles.”
Logan pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, identity theft and money laundering. He surrendered his Kentucky law license.
Logan liquidated his retirement savings and has repaid $207,085 to the estate, according to a sentencing memo from his attorney, David J. Guarnieri.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove sentenced Logan Wednesday.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM.
