High-profile Scottsdale lawyer admits to fraud, hiding a $90K ring in bankruptcy

Scott Maasen is going from high-profile criminal defense attorney to criminal.

The Scottsdale lawyer faces up to five years in prison after he admitted to buying a $90,000 engagement ring at the same time he filed bankruptcy, and hiding it from the court.

His guilty plea comes more than a year after federal authorities accused him of buying million-dollar homes and a Maserati, leasing a beachfront condominium and hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash at the same time he told a federal judge he couldn't pay his bills.

In exchange for a plea to concealment of assets in a bankruptcy, Maasen was charged only in connection with the engagement ring. He admitted to using his father to purchase the ring in 2012 from a California jeweler. 

"This was done so it looked like my dad was the owner of the engagement ring, which he was not," Maasen said in his plea agreement. "Shortly thereafter, I proposed to my fiancé with the engagement ring."

He and his girlfriend later insured the ring on their homeowner's policy.

Maasen, who served as student-body president of Arizona State University in the 1990s, could not be reached for comment.

His sentencing was scheduled for July 31.

He defended Jhessye Shockley's mom

Maasen previously worked as a Maricopa County prosecutor, He is best known for his work as a defense attorney representing the mother of missing 5-year-old Jhessye Shockley on murder charges. He also specialized in drunken-driving cases.

He initially represented Jerice Hunter, who in 2011 was accused of killing her daughter and disposing her body in a landfill. Maasen gave up the case in 2013 because Hunter could not pay him, court records show. 

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Hunter was convicted of child abuse and murder and sentenced in 2015 to life in prison. Shockley's body has never been found.

A grand jury indicted Maasen in 2016 for making luxury purchases through proxies at the same time he petitioned the court for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors for himself and his business.

The indictment said he also convinced the government to forgive $1 million on a federal small-business loan.

Father, girlfriend accused of participating

Maasen's father and girlfriend also were indicted on multiple charges, including conspiracy and concealment. They are accused of helping Maasen disguise assets and of lying to the court about who owned them.

Investigators with the Internal Revenue Service outlined a series of complex financial transactions they say Maasen orchestrated with his father, David Maasen, and his girlfriend, Heather Holm, to shield purchases from the court and creditors.

The government has agreed to drop charges against David Maasen and Holm as part of the deal, according to court documents.

Days before filing for bankruptcy in 2009, Maasen arranged to buy a $1.1 million home on Camelback Mountain, which he put in his father's name, according to the indictment.

Authorities say in October 2009, he signed as the buyer of the home on East Red Rock Drive, then later asked a real-estate agent if his father could be substituted because of financing trouble. They say Scott Maasen borrowed $1.2 million from friends, then told them his father would assume ownership of the house because of his pending divorce.

According to the indictment, David Maasen formed a company called Maasen Properties LLC and leased the property to his son for $7,500 a month. Two months later, in December, David Maasen applied for a loan and told lenders that he had just "signed" for the home, which really belonged to his son, the indictment says.

Scott Maasen reportedly told creditors meeting about his bankruptcy that he had no interest in any property other than a piece of vacant land in Scottsdale.

READ MORE: Scottsdale attorney Scott Maasen indicted on fraud charges

Authorities say he did the same thing in 2012 when he negotiated a $450,000 settlement on a $1.5 million Small Business Administration loan that he had used to purchase a Scottsdale condominium for his law firm. As part of his plea agreement, Maasen also has to repay $1.4 million to the SBA.

Federal authorities said a couple of months before the settlement, Maasen and his girlfriend applied for a $725,000 mortgage loan for a $1.2 million home in Scottsdale's Silverleaf community. The home later was transferred to Maasen's father.

According to the indictment: Holm and Maasen told lenders the home would be their primary residence. Holm then sought an $800,000 loan on her own. She told lenders she earned about $85,000 a year working at the Maasen Law Firm and that she was buying the home as an investment property.

Two months later, Maasen's father and Holm sought a $1.8 million loan to refinance the Silverleaf property, according to the indictment. Scott Maasen acted as their attorney on the transaction.

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Investigators said in addition to the home purchases, Scott Maasen and Holm used funds from his law firm to lease a Maserati Quattroporte in David Maasen's name. Investigators said an auto-insurance policy, however, was issued in the names of Scott Maasen and Holm.

Investigators said Scott Maasen put the car up for sale in 2014 and discussed transferring the lease to undercover agents posing as buyers. He also bragged to undercover agents that he had a summer condo "right on the water" in the tony San Diego community of La Jolla, according to the indictment.

Investigators said Maasen used his law firm's business account and Holm's checking account to make $25,000 in lease payments on the condo without disclosing them to the court, a violation of law.

The grand jury also indicted Scott Maasen of concealing his ownership interest in an investment group, hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars he received while acting as a broker on a property sale and not reporting his purchase of a new golf cart.

A history of discipline by the state Bar

Scott Maasen graduated from ASU in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in political science and served as student-body president in 1992-93. He received his law degree from California Western School of Law in San Diego.

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The State Bar of Arizona shows Maasen has been disciplined in multiple cases. He has received admonitions, a reprimand and has been placed on probation three times. He was reprimanded again in November.

A 2016 case involved a mentally disabled minor accused of sex crimes, who "contacted several 13-15-year-old girls on Facebook and engaged in explicit sex talk with them," according to state Bar records. Maasen allowed his client to plead guilty and avoid jail time without taking any steps to determine if his client was mentally competent, records state.

A judge later threw out the guilty plea and the conviction.

The state Bar put Maasen on probation, citing several aggravating circumstances, including: "prior disciplinary offenses, selfish motive, refusal to acknowledge wrongful nature of conduct, vulnerability of victim, substantial experience in the practice of law, and indifference to making restitution."