Attorney Stole More Than $1.7M From Trust: Polk County Sheriff

POLK COUNTY, FL — An attorney was arrested Wednesday night for stealing more than $1.7 million from the living trust account of a deceased Polk County resident, authorities said.

Jason Penrod, 47, the owner and attorney of Family Elder Law Firm in Lake Wales, was arrested outside Ocala by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant issued by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office around 8:30 p.m., according to a PCSO news release.

The Winter Haven resident was charged with felony grand theft.

Penrod questioned why he was being arrested and was “distraught at the time of his arrest,” the sheriff’s office said.

He told detectives that his attorney contacted the state attorney’s office about the incident and thought it “was being handled,” PCSO said. He refused to speak further with detectives.

During the investigation, Polk County detectives learned that Penrod had flown to Pennsylvania to confess his theft to the adult son and daughter of one of his clients, who had passed away.

Penrod gave the victim’s son a letter addressed to both him and his sister, in which he claimed he was dealing with mental and personal stress and to cope he would frequently gamble.

His gambling compulsion increased to where he had “exhausted our family's savings, [and] my law firm’s profits,” the sheriff’s office said.

He stated that “being out of money and having a personal bank account at the same bank holding the trust funds, the perfect storm ensued in October 2023” and “over the next 3 months, I frequently transferred funds from your Trust account to my personal account” to fund his gambling at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, the agency said.

“It is heartbreaking and insulting that a lawyer, who this victim placed his trust in, would cheat not only his victim, but the victim’s family, including children and grandchildren,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “We rely on lawyers to uphold the law and demonstrate integrity. Penrod did neither. His excuses are just that — he promised when he was given his license to practice law that he would protect his clients — and he has done the exact opposite.”

Penrod’s former associate attorney also discovered the misuse of client funds and reported him to the Florida Bar Association, the sheriff’s office said.

After the report by his former associate, Penrod then reported himself to the Florida State Supreme Court for misuse of funds from two clients’ trusts.

Detectives confirmed that Penrod has been to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa multiple times this year, losing more than $1.7 million gambling.

Copies of his bank records, which showed that he stole $1,705,000 from the victim’s trust account and put it into his own personal bank accounts, the sheriff’s office said.

His bank records show that Penrod directly wired $1,207,120 to the casino and that he has also withdrawn $24,511.45 from ATMs there.

Investigators believe that he has stolen money from other client victims.