POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A Polk County attorney was arrested Thursday shortly after a lawsuit accused him of diverting nearly $1.8 million from a client's trust fund to his personal account, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
Jason Penrod was arrested for grand theft over $100,000, a first-degree felony according to deputies.
The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 21, says Penrod of Family Elder Law in Lake Wales frequently transferred funds from a trust fund for his client, David Anderson, to his own personal account before wiring that money to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa over the course of three months.
Anderson's children, Sherry Prevoznik and Charles Anderson, are demanding damages in excess of $50,000, according to the lawsuit.
David Anderson reportedly established the trust fund in August 2014 and listed Prevoznik and Charles Anderson as the sole beneficiaries of his estate following his death, which happened in October 2021.
The lawsuit says Penrod met with Charles Anderson in June 2024 at a coffee shop in Pennsylvania "to discuss the winding down of the administration of the Trust."
During that meeting, Penrod gave Charles Anderson a letter confessing to removing funds from his father's trust and putting it in his personal account beginning in October 2023, according to the lawsuit.
Penrod allegedly confessed to transferring around $1,750,000 of the trust funds "and subsequently lost all of the money at the casino."
The following month, a managing attorney with Zocklein Law, P.A., called Penrod to confirm that the contents of the letter were in fact true. Penrod confirmed everything in the letter was true, according to the lawsuit.
Around that same time, Family Elder Law abruptly closed, according to a report from Lake Wales News.
"Unfortunately, and with a heavy heart, I will be closing Family Elder Law in the near future. In the interim, we will be providing additional information and options to our clients to manage their cases in the best possible way," Penrod stated in a text to Lake Wales News.
Overall, the lawsuit accuses Penrod of several charges, including conversion, civil theft and breach of trust.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is expected to provide more details on Penrod's arrest around 2:30 p.m. Thursday at a news conference. 10 Tampa Bay will provide the latest information from that conference.
