The Illinois Supreme Court has suspended an Oak Brook attorney,
author and former radio host accused of misappropriating more than $2 million
from a client.
The court this week suspended indefinitely Kathleen Niew's
license to practice law while her disciplinary case is pending. The move came
after state regulators said she was "a continuing danger to the
public."
The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission accused
Niew of taking more than $2 million from an Oak Park couple while assisting
them in purchasing investment properties, but then failing to return the money
to the couple when those deals fell through. Niew did not file a formal
response to the ARDC case, commission spokesman Jim Grogan said.
The suspension comes after a separate state agency, the
Department of Insurance, suspended Niew's license to sell insurance in February
on the grounds that she allegedly submitted forged signatures in four separate
cases.
Niew, 57, who lives in Burr Ridge, has not been charged with a
crime in any of the cases. She did not respond to repeated requests for
comment.
The Oak Park couple, Jamal and Leda Khoury, is suing Niew for
$10 million in actual and punitive damages in DuPage County Circuit Court. Niew
has been found liable in the civil case, though the amount of liability has not
been determined.
Another pending DuPage County lawsuit accuses Niew of failing to
repay a $500,000 loan.
The attorney commission had asked the Supreme Court to suspend
Niew's license last month, after stating that her conduct involved "moral
turpitude" and that she "poses a threat to her present or future
clients who might entrust her with their funds."
Niew has published at least two books on investing and hosted a
weekly financial planning radio show on WIND-AM 560, for which she paid the
station for airtime. Station officials issued a statement Wednesday saying that
Niew went off the air in March and no longer has any relationship with the
station.
It's rare for an attorney to be issued an interim law license
suspension while a disciplinary case is still pending, which happened only
three times last year among the 103 attorneys suspended in Illinois, the
commission said.
The attorney commission has set a hearing on Niew's case for
June 27 and then will recommend to the Supreme Court a final disciplinary
action.
In 2001, Niew's law license was suspended for nine months based
on a finding that she forged signatures, public records show.
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