A federal grand jury charged a New Orleans criminal defense lawyer on Friday with wire fraud, accusing her of stealing $250,000 from a client’s family for a bogus settlement she claimed to have confected with the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.
Over a seven-month period last year, attorney Tanzanika Ruffin solicited the staggering sum from the family of client Kai Hansen through wire transfers and Venmo payments, a grand jury indictment alleges. She wrote official-sounding emails claiming portions of the money would resolve Hansen’s charges, according to the indictment and state court records. She said payments would also cover medical treatment for a New Orleans Police Department officer whom Hansen was accused of assaulting in March outside of a Bourbon Street cigar bar.
But “as Ruffin well knew, neither the (District Attorney’s Office) nor the officer requested any money from the client at any point,” the indictment reads…