Former Santa Rosa lawyer Scott Steever sentenced to prison for fraud

A disbarred Rohnert Park attorney who once ran the largest law firm on the North Coast has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for defrauding a client of more than $200,000, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Scott Loren Steever, 60, once at the helm of Lanahan & Reilley, admitted taking the money from a trust account over a three-year period ending in 2012 and using it for his own purposes. In addition to his prison term, which he begins serving Jan. 8, Steever was ordered to pay more than $283,000 in restitution.

His onetime law partner, attorney Robert Anderson, 77, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering last year and will be sentenced Dec. 13. Anderson also has been disbarred.

Steever and Anderson were major shareholders at Lanahan, Steever & Anderson, the successor to a firm that once boasted 65 attorneys with regional offices in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento.

It once counted among its attorneys former state Sen. Noreen Evans, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Gary Nadler and former Congressman Doug Bosco. Bosco is an investor in Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.