Attorney suspended for defrauding victims out of $139K
Attorney has license suspended for defrauding victims out of $139K while working at McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office
A Crystal Lake attorney had his law license suspended for committing a scam where he defrauded victims out of $139,000 while working as a prosecutor for the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The Illinois Supreme Court issued a two-year suspension for attorney Brendan M. Pierard, of Crystal Lake, last month.
The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) said Pierard was first licensed to practice law in the state in 2016.
The IARDC said Pierard’s suspension is due to him engaging in multiple acts of deceit over five years and committing wire fraud in connection with a cryptocurrency scam.
Pierard’s actions occurred while he was working as a prosecutor for the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Pierard joined the state’s attorney’s office in January 2022 as an assistant state’s attorney in the Criminal Division.
Prior to working at the state’s attorney’s office, Pierard had operated his own general private practice covering criminal and civil cases and served as general counsel for a boutique investment firm.
Court records show Pierard was charged with wire fraud in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in November 2023.
An indictment said Pierard traded cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, and cryptocurrency futures and options through exchanges.
Pierard, who was not licensed or registered as an investment advisor or commodity pool operator, participated in a scheme to defraud approximately 21 investors from September 2017 to September 2022, the indictment said.
He obtained approximately $139,500 from the 21 investor victims while telling them their funds were not at risk, the indictment said.
Pierard’s cryptocurrency trading became “increasingly unprofitable” and he failed to inform the investors of the loss, instead telling them that the trading was profitable.Pierard lost all of the money he had received by late 2020 and he ignored the investors when they tried to withdraw their purported gains and investment principal from him, the indictment said.
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In January 2024, Pierard entered into an 18-month deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Numerous conditions were agreed to between Pierard and prosecutors, including Pierard paying $124,500 in restitution to the victims.
If Pierard follows all of the conditions of the agreement, prosecutors will seek to have his charges dismissed.
The Illinois Supreme Court’s suspension of Pierard’s law license is in effect for a minimum of two years and he will not be eligible for reinstatement until he completes the restitution payments in the criminal case.
Reinstatement of his law license is not an automatic process and he would be required to petition for reinstatement, which will be heard by the ARDC Hearing Board.
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