A Michigan lawyer who was a passionate sailor was sentenced last week to more than five years in federal prison for bank fraud and money laundering.
U.S. District Judge Paul Borman ordered Kenneth Flaska to spend 64 months in prison for swindling $2.75 million from clients and his law firm, Bloomfield Hills-based Dawda, Mann, Mulcahy & Sadler, from 2004 to 2013. Flaska used false and fraudulent pretenses and representations to obtain funds payable to clients and diverted them for his personal use, federal prosecutors said.
An avid boater, Flaska used some of the money to buy a 30-foot yacht that he sailed in the July 2013 Bayview-Mackinac Boat Race, which is run from Michigan’s Port Huron to Mackinac Island. Karma Police is a Shaw 30 that finished third in the 2-Shore Course Division.
Flaska was honored in that year’s race program as an “Old Goat,” a sailor who had competed in at least 25 Bayview-Mackinac Races.
The government seized his home, two vessels and money in a bank account with a total combined value of nearly $1 million, according to a report by the Macomb Daily.
