New Orleans Lawyer Gets 4 Years-Plus for Defrauding Clients

A New Orleans, La., attorney has been sentenced to more than four years in jail for mail fraud.

U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente says U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman sentenced 67-year-old Robert Hackett to 51 months in prison Wednesday and ordered him to pay $727,230 in restitution to his victims.

Federal prosecutors say, from January 1997 through December 2007, Hackett collected payments from insurers for his clients’ sports-related injuries and then deposited the money into his own bank account for his personal use.

A court filing says Hackett defrauded at least four athletes who suffered career-ending injuries. Their names aren’t disclosed, but two were professional hockey players and two were professional football players.