Ohio Attorney Charged In Ponzi Scheme And Tax Case Indicted For Failure To Show At Trial; Dale Zucker On The Lam Since Jan. 26; U.S. Marshals Investigating

A Cleveland attorney with ties to Texas and Florida has been indicted for failure to appear at his trial in a Ponzi scheme case, federal prosecutors said.

Dale P. Zucker, a medical-malpractice and personal-injury attorney who practiced in Cleveland and Chagrin Falls, was indicted in August 2009 for mail fraud and filing false tax returns. The FBI said Zucker “fraudulently induced approximately 19 current or former clients of his law practice and other acquaintances to invest in businesses that did not exist.”

Zucker’s trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 26 in Cleveland, but he did not show. Prosecutors now say he has been indicted for failing to appear.

Zucker “knowingly and intentionally failed to appear,” prosecutors said, adding that the indictment was handed down after an investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Losses in the Ponzi scheme case totaled more than $702,000, prosecutors said. Zucker’;s law firm was known as Dale P. Zucker L.P.A.

Zucker, prosecutors said, “lulled investors into a false sense of security by mailing them promissory notes that guaranteed the return of their initial investment at an interest rate of 10 percent to 25 percent, depending on the investor.”

He also tricked investors by “providing them with post-dated checks for their principal investment and interest,” prosecutors said.

In the Ponzi case, Zucker was charged with filing false tax returns for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, and not reporting income of $588,000 in those tax years..