Paralegal pleads guilty to taking $700,000 from firm

A local paralegal thought she could get rich quick by moving thousands of dollars in and out of her law firm's real estate accounts before anyone knew the money was missing, she said in court.

It didn't work.

Amy C. Smith, 33, pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to a single count of wire fraud. She is accused of taking nearly $700,000 from a Mount Pleasant firm where she briefly worked.

Smith told U.S. District Judge Patrick Michael Duffy that she'd been pulled into a get-rich-quick scheme, "and I fell for it."

She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing.

Kaye Mullinax, president of the Palmetto Paralegal Association, said the case helps underscore the need to professionalize the job of paralegal. Unlike other states, there are no minimum requirements of education or other experience to work under the title of paralegal in South Carolina, she said.

The association long has held that paralegals should be certified or be a member of a governing association, Mullinax said.

A background check also might have disclosed that Smith has a criminal record.

Five months before she was hired in Mount Pleasant, Horry County police arrested Smith on three counts of breach of trust, which is a felony fraud charge. She pleaded guilty and received a 10-year suspended sentence.

According to the case, Smith began moving money shortly after she was hired by the Abel and Reynolds law firm in May 2006.

Within a matter of weeks, authorities said, she began wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars from the firm's escrow accounts to an accomplice in Ohio.

Smith took the money "with the intention of replacing it," she told Duffy in court Monday.

Authorities contend the money went toward a boat, cars, vacations and property.

The money moved by check and wire transfer in at least three installments of $50,078, $224,070 and $416,573, an indictment says.

The money was wired out of state in large sums, then back to an account in South Carolina.

Smith's co-defendant, Michelle Essary Biear, 30, became a fugitive shortly after the criminal charges were filed in January.

She was arrested in Florida last month and is in the custody of U.S. marshals bringing her back to Charleston, authorities said.

Efforts to recover all the funds are ongoing, officials said.

Reach Schuyler Kropf at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.