Ron Mix is in the NFL Hall of Fame for his play as an offensive lineman for the San Diego Chargers. He was nicknamed the “Intellectual Assassin” for the combination of his physical play and his law degree. Mr. Mix’s law practice focused on civil litigation with an emphasis on workers compensation claims for professional athletes.
Mr. Mix paid a referral fee to a non-attorney for clients. That’s prohibited. From the Kansas City Star:
Instead of paying the person directly, Mix donated about $155,000 over three years to a charity operated by that person (identified as “Individual F” in the indictment), prosecutors said. Then Mix claimed those payments on his tax returns as charitable deductions…
Individual F operated The Sixth Man Foundation, which did business as the charity Project Contact Africa, according to the documents.
According to court documents, Individual F falsely told Mix that the donations would be spent on “alleviating suffering in Africa.”
However, Individual F used the bulk of the donations “for his own personal enjoyment and to fund his lifestyle,” according to the plea agreement.
Had the payments gone to a real charity (rather than Individual F), everything might have been copacetic. (This still could have been against ethics rules for attorneys, but the charitable deductions Mr. Mix made would have been legitimate.) Mr. Mix could have used the IRS’s online search tool to verify that the Sixth Man Foundation was a legitimate charity, eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Mr. Mix has already made restitution. Given that and his cooperation, I expect his sentence will be light. Still, had he followed a former president (“Trust but Verify [the charity]”) it’s likely this would not have happened.
UPDATE: It is clear from reading the indictment of “Individual F” (Kermit Washington) that Project Contact Africa was a real charity. The Department of Justice is alleging that very few of the donations that were meant for PCA actually made it to Africa. (See this post for more.)