PALM BEACH — Worth Avenue bankruptcy lawyer and socialite Tina Talarchyk, one of the area’s most prominent defenders of broke folks, was ordered arrested by U.S. Marshals and held in jail after she allegedly failed to follow a judge’s orders in a bankruptcy case, Gossip Extra has learned.
The order also mandates an audit for the trust funds of Talarchyk’s clients.
Oh yes: She was suspended from pleading cases before local bankruptcy judges and ordered to pay a part of her fees back to Chapter 11 client Anna Maria Sanders.
Records show Talarchyk has yet to be arrested and no one is picking up the phone in her office at 205 Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. She has yet to respond to our email asking for comment.
But when Talarchyk is nabbed, she’s scheduled to be held until she is dragged before a federal court Feb. 4 for a hearing.
The scathing order signed yesterday by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John Olson spells out a litany of alleged actions by Talarchyk that could end up in a law book on what lawyers should avoid doing at all costs.
Olson accuses her of mishandling Sanders’ two-year Chapter 11 case and failing to show up at a key hearing yesterday and hand over the proper documentation.
Mostly, there are questions about the fees that the court approved for Talarchyk in the case. In all, Olson approved $12,800 in payment for her work but she may have received a $50,000-retainer and, so far, has not paid the client back!
Despite four orders by the judge that she produce accounting of what she was paid in the case, Talarchyk has yet to comply, according to records.
Meanwhile, the judge also appointed an accounting examiner to look into clients’ accounts controlled by Talarchyk and warned Talarchyk that the only way she’ll come out of jail is if she complies with the judge’s demands.
“The incarceration of Talarchyk is intended to be coercive,” the judge wrote, “and does not in any way constitute a punitive sanction. Talarchyk is in complete possession of the keys to her jail cell.”
Talarchyk has been practicing law since 1989 and has no history of discipline from the bar. Records show she did ask Olson to recuse himself from the case late last year but was turned down.
Stay tuned because, this being Palm Beach, this might become a lot more interesting!
By Jose Lambiet, GossipExtra.com, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Jan. 21, 2016
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