Former Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Attorney Accused of Fraud

An attorney has filed a lawsuit against an Enid, Okla., lawyer, accusing him of fraudulent activities in a case over unpaid legal fees involving former Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher.

Enid attorney Stephen Jones told The Oklahoman that the lawsuit filed in Tulsa federal court by Texas attorney Daniel Hagood is “a piece of fiction.”

Hagood represented Fisher in criminal tax and bribery cases. In 2009, Fisher pleaded no contest to accepting bribes and was sentenced to six months in a private Tulsa lock-down facility. He served 14 months in prison following a 2006 felony conviction in a campaign corruption case. The tax charge against him was dismissed.

Hagood claims Jones, working for Texas insurance executive Eugene “Gene” Phillips, agreed to pay him legal fees and other attorneys for representing Fisher in those cases. He said Jones and others paid him $575,000, but did not pay him an extra $467,614 that was owed.

Hagood accused Jones in his lawsuit of fraudulently joining Phillips and Fisher in persuading him to take the case and then withholding payments. He is seeking the $467,614 in the suit, plus interest, attorney fees and punitive damages.

Jones declined to discuss whether Phillips agreed to pay for Fisher’s defense.

“Unlike Dan Hagood, Tom Seymour and Scott Graham, I don’t violate the attorney-client privilege and the rule of confidentiality,” he said. “They have — at least six times in that lawsuit.”

Seymour and Graham are representing Hagood in the lawsuit.

It alleges Phillips paid Fisher’s legal feels to keep him “happy” so he would not work with the state attorney general’s office in a potential bribery case against him. Phillips was never charged and has denied bribing Fisher.