IN RE: JOHN A. MAIONA

NO. BD-94-048

SUMMARY

On May 2, 1995, the respondent was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts of twenty-four counts of embezzlement in violation 18 U.S.C. § 645 and two counts of bankruptcy fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 152. The respondent was sentenced to a concurrent terms of imprisonment of twenty-seven months, followed by twenty-four months of supervised release. The respondent was fined $10,000.

The conduct giving rise to the convictions occurred between 1987 and April 1993, while the respondent was serving as a trustee appointed by the Bankruptcy Court to administer debtors’ estates. While serving in this capacity, the respondent converted estate assets totaling $664,152.69 and misused another $401,248.00.

The respondent was temporarily suspended from the practice of law on November 29, 1994. Matter of Maiona, 10 Mass. Att’y Disc. R. 185 (1994). The respondent did not sign an affidavit of compliance with the order of temporary suspension until January 29, 1995, after the date his affidavit of compliance was due. On May 18, 1995, Bar Counsel filed a petition for discipline based on the respondent’s convictions of serious crimes, as that term is defined by S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 12.

On March 27, 1998, the respondent submitted an affidavit of resignation which admitted the allegations of the petition for discipline and violations of Canon One, DR 1-102(A)(4)-(6), and Canon Nine, DR 9-102(A) and (b). The respondent appended to and incorporated in his affidavit a "Statement of Extenuating Circumstances," which asserted that the respondent had been depressed since 1985 due to a diagnosis that year of macular degeneration. Bar Counsel recommended that the respondent’s affidavit of resignation be accepted and that an order of disbarment enter. Bar Counsel recommended that the effective date of the disbarment be retroactive to the date of the respondent’s compliance with the order of temporary suspension.

On April 13, 1998, the Board of Bar Overseers voted to recommend to the Supreme Judicial Court that the respondent’s affidavit of resignation be accepted and that an order of disbarment enter, effective retroactively to January 29, 1995, the date of the respondent’s affidavit of compliance. On May 5, 1998, the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County (Marshall,J.) entered an order accepting the respondent’s affidavit of resignation and disbarring the respondent from the practice of law in the Commonwealth retroactive to January 29, 1995.