delivered the opinion of the Court.
Jоhn W. Gibbs, Jr., a member of the Virginia State Bar not actively engaged in the practice of law, was chаrged with a violation of Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(4) * of the Virginia Code of Professional Responsibility. After a heаring, the Third District Committee of the Virginia State Bar imposed a penalty of a private reprimand. Gibbs appealed to the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board. After a hearing, the Board entered аn order May 15, 1984, finding that he had violated the Disciplinary Rule and suspending his license for one year. By ordеr entered June 28, 1984, the Board denied Gibbs’s petition to reconsider or in the alternative to reducе the penalty. In his appeal of right to this Court, Gibbs challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and the severity of the penalty.
The facts are undisputed. Gibbs, formerly employed as a patent аttorney, had ceased to work as a lawyer and had been self-em *41 ployed as an investor. About March of 1982, Gibbs and Harry O. Wiles became tenants in common when Gibbs acquired a one-half interest in certain real estate from Wiles’s former wife. In June 1982 through Gibbs’s efforts, the property was sold to a purchаser subject to a mortgage held by Virginia National Bank Mortgage Corporation (VNB). Gibbs learned that Wiles had an accident and sickness insurance policy held by VNB and requiring premium payments of $8.22 per mоnth until cancelled by Wiles. VNB declined to cancel the insurance on Gibbs’s request and refused to accept from Gibbs a monthly payment on the mortgage which did not include the insurance premium.
Gibbs asked Wiles’s lawyer to have Wiles authorize cancellation of the insurance but the lawyer inadvertently failed to do so. Gibbs then sent to VNB an undated letter, purportedly signed by Wiles, requesting cancellation of the insurance. Gibbs had drafted the letter, however, and required his wife, who was also his secretary, to sign Wilеs’s name to it. The letter was enclosed in a letter of transmittal dated November 12, 1982, from Gibbs to VNB. When William D. Grove, a VNB vice president and counsel, questioned the authenticity of Wiles’s signature, Gibbs readily admitted whаt had happened. Grove reported the matter to the Virginia State Bar.
There was evidence that termination of the insurance would benefit Wiles as well as Gibbs, that Wiles wished to have the policy cancelled, but that he did not authorize Gibbs or Gibbs’s wife to sign his name to the letter requesting cancellаtion.
Gibbs argues that the gravamen of the offense charged against him is that he committed fraud, requiring prоof that he knowingly transmitted the unauthorized document with the intent to defraud or deceive. He says that thе record shows that he did not intend to deceive, but rather that he merely exercised poor judgment, without prejudice to anyone, to accomplish what he and Wiles both desired.
We will assume without deciding that knowing misrepresentation must be proved to establish a violation of DR 1-102(A)(4).
See Pickus
v.
Virginia State Bar,
There was evidence, however, that VNB was prejudiced by the misrepresentation. VNB would have been exposed to potential liability to Wiles’s estate if Wiles had died while still liable on the mortgage following an unauthorized cаncellation of the insurance. For this reason, VNB personnel had informed Gibbs that the cancellation must be authorized by Wiles, who had contracted for the insurance. Consequently, we hold that the evidence is sufficient to support the finding of the Disciplinary Board that Gibbs violated DR 1-102(A)(4).
See Myers
v.
Virginia State Bar,
Gibbs says that if the Board did not err in finding him guilty of the violation charged, it erred in imposing an excessively severe penalty. The imposition оf sanctions, however, is a matter within the Board’s discretion.
Blue
v.
Seventh District Committee,
We will affirm the Bоard’s order suspending Gibbs’s license to practice law in the Commonwealth for a period of one year, and we will order that such suspension shall commence November 1, 1986. We will further order that Gibbs shаll give notice, by certified mail, of his suspension to all clients for whom he is currently handling matters and to all opposing attorneys and presiding judges in pending litigation. He shall further make immediate apprоpriate arrangements for the disposition of those matters presently in his care in conformity with thе wishes of his clients.
Affirmed.
Notes
DR 1-102. Misconduct. — (A) A lawyer shall not:
(4) Engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation which reflects adversely on a lawyer’s fitness to practice law.