A Florida lawyer has been accused of depleting a client’s trust account by squandering $1.8 million on gambling at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the rightful beneficiaries.
Jason Penrod, the owner of Family Elder Law, has admitted to transferring the substantial amount from a client’s account to his personal account. He expressed a desire to repay the money by continuing his legal career. His law firm abruptly shut down its branches in Lake Wales, Lakeland, and Sebring in July, as reported by The Ledger, likely due to the disciplinary action pending from the Florida Bar and the mounting pressure on Penrod.
In a letter to one of the plaintiffs, shared in court documents, Penrod confessed to being a “raging addict.” He revealed that his gambling habit had caused him to exhaust not only his family’s savings but also his law firm’s profits, leaving him detached from reality and the consequences of his actions. Penrod wrote, “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.” He continued, “And then, once I received more money, I would gamble and lose those monies.”
Penrod had been hired in 2014 to create a living trust for David D. Anderson, who passed away in 2021. Penrod was designated as the successor trustee, with Anderson’s children, Charles Anderson and Sherry Prevoznik, named as the sole beneficiaries. In June, Charles Anderson met with Penrod to discuss finalizing the trust administration. It was during this meeting that Penrod handed Anderson a confessional letter in which he admitted to misappropriating the funds from October 2023 to January 2024 until the trust was drained.
Penrod attributed his actions to “post-traumatic stress endured from childhood experiences,” which he claimed had severely impacted his mental health. He viewed the misappropriated funds as temporary loans he intended to repay with interest. However, he soon realized repayment was impossible, leading him to “hit rock bottom” and acknowledge the imminent loss of his law license and potential prison time.
In a bid for redemption, Penrod filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court seeking “disciplinary revocation.” If approved, it would terminate his privilege to practice law while allowing the possibility of reapplying for readmission to the Florida Bar in the future. Additionally, it would dismiss the Florida Bar’s disciplinary action against him but would not shield him from any criminal charges.
In his plea, Penrod stated, “I humbly ask that you allow me to continue to work and pay you back. 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 […] whether you forgive me.”
