A Wheeling attorney whose law license currently is suspended in West Virginia has been indicted by federal prosecutors on dozens of felony counts, accused of fraudulently handling client funds and using client funds to conduct unlawful monetary transactions.

Paul J. Harris faces 42 counts in total – 29 counts of alleged mail fraud and wire fraud, five counts of bank fraud and eight counts of unlawful monetary transactions. According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each of the mail and wire fraud counts, up to 30 years in federal prison for each of the bank fraud counts, and up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the unlawful monetary transaction counts.

According to the indictment filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Wheeling, federal prosecutors accuse Harris of taking money from a client’s trust account – or Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA) – and commingling client funds with non-client funds by moving client funds from his IOLTA account to his law firm operating account. He is then accused of converting client funds to his own use to fund payments unrelated to the representation of the client.

The IOLTA account is a separate account kept for attorneys to pay legal fees and expenses while representing clients. Attorneys are permitted to withdraw legal fees and expenses paid in advance, but only as the fees were earned or expenses were incurred.

The indictment mentions four of Harris’ clients — clients 1 through 4 — one who had around $700,000 in Harris’ IOLTA account, one who had $50,000 in it, one who had around $1.1 million in it and one who had $1 million in it as part of a $3.5 million civil action settlement.

Among the accusations against Harris is the allegation that he would use the commingled funds of one client to make payments he owed to another client to conceal his alleged misuse of client funds. He’s also accused of making false and misleading statements to clients and others that omitted materially important information about his use of client funds.

For example, according to the indictment, on Nov. 30, 2020, Harris allegedly had Client 3 wire $300,000 to Harris’ IOLTA account. Harris then, between Nov. 30 and Dec. 15, 2020, allegedly transferred around $150,000 of that money from the IOLTA account to his law firm’s operating account. Harris then allegedly used $20,000 of that money to write a check from his law firm operating account to Client 1.

In another example, in November 2022, Harris allegedly deposited seven checks to his IOLTA account totalling $2.75 million from the civil action settlement, including the $1 million check made to Client 4. Harris is then alleged, between Nov. 30, 2022, and Jan. 27, 2023, to have transferred around $1.17 million of those settlement funds to his law firm operating account, which, according to the indictment, had a negative balance prior to those transfers. He then allegedly used part of that money to write six checks from the operating account totaling around $169,000 to pay outstanding federal income taxes for Client 3’s daughter.

Harris also is accused of using those commingled funds for other expenses, including allegedly writing a $28,000 check from the law firm’s operations account to a local school and writing a $24,000 check from that account to a car dealer.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in March suspended Harris’ law license for two years after it found he had committed seven violations of the state Rules of Professional Conduct after a former client had accused him of taking $50,000 to represent the client in a criminal case, but never appearing on his behalf.

According to the indictment, Harris was admitted to the West Virginia State Bar in 1987.