MONROE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that a bankruptcy attorney was sentenced to 34 months in prison for collecting filing fees from clients without informing the bankruptcy court.
Glay H. Collier II, 53, of Benton, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert G. James on one count of bankruptcy fraud. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $69,063.05 restitution. According to evidence presented at the November 10, 2015 guilty plea, Collier filed records into the bankruptcy court stating that he would accept “No Look” fees as payment for his services. The “No Look” fee caps attorney’s fees in bankruptcy proceedings to $2,800. In excess of that limit, Collier charged up to $281 in filing fees to some clients, which he did not disclose to the court. Between March 2010 and November 2013, Collier filed 983 Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases in Monroe, and during the same time period, he filed 2,160 Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases in Shreveport. In approximately 479 of these cases, Collier fraudulently collected and attempted to collect filing fees.
The FBI and the U.S. Trustee’s Office, Region 5, conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cytheria D. Jernigan prosecuted the case.