Prosecutor: Millions still missing as sentencing for Dustin Johnson’s ex-lawyer nears

The sentencing hearing for Dustin Johnson’s former attorney, Nathan “Nat” Hardwick IV of Atlanta, has been set for Dec. 19.

A federal jury convicted Hardwick on Oct. 12 of embezzling $26 million from the now-bankrupt residential real estate firm Morris Hardwick Schneider, of which he was the majority owner, and the affiliated LandCastle Title company.

Johnson claimed in a lawsuit against Hardwick, his firm and his firm partners that he was bilked out of $3 million in 2014 with a fabricated story about an investment opportunity, and that the money was actually used to cover shortages in the firm’s accounts. Johnson reached a $2 million settlement that had to be approved by a bankruptcy court in 2016.

According to an article by Meredith Hobbs of Law.com, the prosecution is seeking a sentence of roughly 15 years for Hardwick, 53, who was deemed a flight risk and was taken into custody after the verdict.

According to Law.com, prosecutor J. Russell Phillips claims a lot of money is still unaccounted for and Hardwick transferred at least $5 million from MHS to the bank account of his girlfriend, Julia Olivares. Phillips said he wired her the money in $500,000 increments and it was subsequently withdrawn in cashier’s checks.

Law.com says Olivares, 31, was wearing an 8.35-carat diamond ring at the verdict hearing that Hardwick bought for $285,000 for a now ex-fiancee, according to government evidence from the trial. She has a beauty salon called Blown, according to her Facebook page, at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Miss., where Hardwick often gambled, according to testimony.

Law.com reports the government has documented that about $19.6 million of the $26 million Hardwick was convicted of stealing came from MHS’s escrow accounts, but a Fidelity National Finance executive, Erika Meinhardt, testified during the trial that Fidelity spent $29.5 million to replace money missing from escrow accounts.