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According to the California State Auditor, ““Early one year, the State Bar closed five cases alleging client trust account violations by an attorney as de minimis. Later that same year, the State Bar received another complaint pertaining to a $435 overdraft of the attorney’s client trust account and contacted the attorney to obtain further information. The attorney explained that the complaint was due to a mistake. The State Bar accepted this explanation and closed the complaint without taking further action, incorrectly noting that the attorney had no prior history of reportable actions.   During this period, the State Bar was investigating another complaint against the same attorney that involved, among other issues, an alleged client trust account violation. The State Bar did not forward any of the complaints described above to the investigative team to determine whether they were connected and ultimately closed the client trust account violation complaint it was investigating as well. Within a month, the State Bar received three more client trust account complaints. The State Bar requested additional information from the attorney, who early in the next year informed the State Bar that the violations were due to a series of personal crises. By the time the State Bar subpoenaed the attorney’s client trust account records, the attorney had withdrawn or attempted to withdraw funds from the client trust account nearly 50 times, totaling approximately $5,400 for the payment of personal expenses. Although the attorney deposited personal funds to reimburse the expenses, the State Bar concluded that the attorney had commingled assets in a client trust account in willful violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct and suspended the attorney.”