This is a disciplinary proceeding, filed by the Director of the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board (Director), seeking disbarment of the respondent, Frederick D. Kraemer.
This action arises from the respondent’s federal conviction of six counts of interstate transportation of stolen goods, mail fraud and conspiracy, and a North Dakota state court conviction of theft of property. Respondent was sentenced in federal district court to six years each on four counts and five years each on two counts. Respondent pleaded guilty to the state court charge and was sentenced to 18 months. All sentences run concurrently. The respondent is currently incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institute in Fort Worth, Texas.
Respondent is licensed to practice law in Minnesota and North Dakota. He was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1979. The federal crimes of which respondent was convicted involved participation in a scheme for fraudulently obtaining and cashing more than $46,000 worth of airline tickets. Passenger coupons were turned in to the airlines and respondent received money from the airlines for the coupons. The state court conviction was for the sale of a stolen Rolex watch valued in excess of $500.
The respondent offers the following scenario in his brief to explain his conduct: In September, 1982, respondent received a call from a Minneapolis friend, Tony Mancino, at respondent’s office in Fargo, North Dakota. Mancino wanted respondent to represent the wife of his friend Dale Michae-loff. Marie Michaeloff had been charged with, and had pled guilty to, six counts of felony theft in August, 1982, in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Dale Michaeloff retained Kraemer in order to obtain post-conviction relief for the Fergus Falls convictions and also to handle other felony theft charges filed against Marie in Dakota and Olmsted Counties.
On or about September 22, 1982, after reviewing Marie’s case, respondent felt that he could help her and advised Dale that his fees would be approximately $20-25,000. Respondent claims that during the month of October, 1982, he and Dale became friends. At some point, respondent states, Dale offered to trade airline tickets for legal services. Dale had previously worked for Dollar Travel Agency, and had recently started his own travel agency, called Budget Travel. Respondent states that he knew Dale was “cash short” and *404 that he “had no reason to doubt Dale’s authority to issue the tickets,” so he accepted the proposal. He further states that he also accepted a proposal to exchange his 1981 Lincoln Continental for airline tickets. He says he checked with-the airlines and found the tickets to be valid. Respondent states that Mancino gave him a Rolex watch, to sell to a jeweler friend of respondent. Mancino received half the proceeds and respondent applied the balance to Marie’s account, as agreed.
At this time, respondent was involved in an affair with Charlotte Skjonsby, who was indicted as his coconspirator. Respondent explains that some of the airline tickets were in Skjonsby’s name because he didn’t want his wife to receive them in a divorce settlement. Skjonsby pled guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail.
In December, 1982, respondent states, after hearing Dale say that he was “ ‘burning’ the airline for half a million dollars,” he became suspicious that the tickets might not be valid. In July, 1983, respondent went to the FBI. He asserts that at the time he told his story to the FBI no investigation had been started by any law enforcement agency.
Respondent states that his federal case is presently on appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Further, he states that he is scheduled for release on October 15, 1985, after serving 14 months, the minimum amount of time he would be required to serve before being paroled.
The Director alleges a violation of Minn. Code Prof.Resp. DR 1-102 in support of his petition for disbarment.
Minn.Code Prof.Resp. DR 1-102 states:
A lawyer shall not
sjt ⅜ ¾: ⅜ ⅜ ⅝
(3) Engage in illegal conduct involving moral turpitude
(4) Engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.
* * * * * *
(6) Engage in any other conduct that adversely reflects on his fitness to practice law.
In his petition, the Director cites the following cases in support of his proposition that Kraemer should be disbarred: In
In re Wegner,
In
In re Turnquist,
Historically, this court disbarred attorneys for conviction of a felony.
See In re Schmidt,
Under Minn.R.Prof.Resp. 19(a) a lawyer’s criminal conviction is conclusive evidence that he committed the conduct for which he was convicted. Despite this rule, respondent offers a lengthy explanation of his version of the facts. He asks this court to review certain testimony from his criminal trial to demonstrate that Dale Michae-loff’s testimony was perjured and Skjons-by’s testimony could not be trusted. This court has refused attempts to relitigate the facts of a criminal conviction in a disciplinary proceeding.
See In re Hedlund,
In Hedlund, the attorney was convicted of presenting false claims to a public body in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 609.465 and 609.05, and diverting corporate property from a corporation in violation of Minn. Stat. §§ 300.60 and 609.05. Id. at 64. The attorney offered the following as mitigating circumstances: his long, previously unblemished career; his pro bono work; his financial difficulties; and the fact that he was not involved in the day-to-day activities of the nursing home which was the subject of his scheme. Id. at 67. This court determined that the danger of his activities outweighed the mitigating circumstances. The activities the court considered dangerous were: that the lawyer personally profited from the illegal rebate scheme; that he presented false claims to a public body; that his conduct was not a single offense; and that he counseled his co-conspirators to “stick together” and lie about the use of rebated cash. Id. This court ordered the attorney disbarred. Id.
In
In re Daffer,
The only actual mitigating circumstance that respondent offers is that he turned himself in to the FBI in July, 1983. It should be noted that this was seven months after respondent “first became aware that there was something wrong with the tickets.” Nevertheless, taking his statements as true, it does appear that he voluntarily went to the authorities and, further, that he subsequently cooperated with them.
To his detriment, the following factors also appear: Respondent’s actions of cashing in airline coupons occurred over a period of nearly a full year. Approximately 13 different names appeared on the fraudulent coupons, making it difficult to believe respondent thought the coupons were valid. The testimony introduced at trial through Dale Michaeloff, and apparently supported by the testimony of Charlotte Skjonsby, was that Kraemer had stolen the tickets out of Michaeloff’s travel office.
Based upon the case law outlined above, interpreting and applying the rules of professional responsibility and their purpose, we see no alternative but to agree with the Director and disbar the respondent. So ordered.