The State Bar of California issued a consumer alert Monday for Dax Yeophantong Craven, a San Francisco-based entertainment lawyer that it has charged with pocketing $100,000 he was supposed to use for a real estate transaction.
In April 2015, Craven received $200,000 from client Michael Hensley, transferred half to a title company on Hensley’s behalf, and deposited the rest—which was intended to be part of the real estate payment—into his own bank account, according to a notice of disciplinary charges filed by the State Bar’s office of chief trial counsel on July 11 in San Francisco.
The State Bar claims that Craven then asked Hensley for another $100,000, claiming that he needed it to verify his client’s net worth. The State Bar’s profile page for Craven, 40, now includes a warning that he has been charged with “a major misappropriation of client funds.”
It is State Bar policy to post such alerts when lawyers are charged with misappropriating $25,000 or more, according to the organization’s press release about its action against Craven.

Craven, who passed the California bar exam in 2006, did not return a phone call seeking comment about the State Bar’s disciplinary proceedings against him.