SONOMA COUNTY—Prior to the late real estate investor Richard Holm’s death, a former Windsor, Sonoma County seventy-four-year-old lawyer, business partner and business investor to Holm, Michael Alan Voorhees [#88240], was told to create multiple family trusts for different members of the Holm’s family, who resides in Sonoma County. He became a comanager and a trustee of the Holm family trust.
Prior to the family requesting financial statements three weeks after Holm’s death, he resigned from the trust May 24, 2022. In May 2022, upon Holm’s death, when the rest of the Holm family wanted to work on their tax returns, they found out the real issue behind the problem with the Holm family trust. It was discovered that Voorhees had been embezzling $550,000 from the Holm’s family trust from 2016 to 2020. The embezzlement was discovered when Holm’s family noticed discrepancies in bank statements, notifying police at once.
On Wednesday, January 11, 2023, he was apprehended on suspicion of stealing from a trustee that he comanaged with Holm. The former lawyer was found guilty of six counts of grand theft in April 2024 in Sonoma County Superior Court. In June 2024, he pleaded no contest, and he was sentenced to almost a year in jail as well as three years of probation. His lawyer said that the stolen money from the trust will be fully repaid.
Since Voorhees’ crimes involved moral turpitude, it was recommended by the State Bar Court to disbar him from the California Supreme Court on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
