4 Bay area lawyers disciplined by high court

Four Tampa Bay area lawyers were among the 47 attorneys disciplined recently by the Florida Supreme Court.

According to the list released today by the Florida Bar:

• Andrew Stuart Forman of Tampa was suspended until further order. An emergency suspension order states that Forman took $308,000 in trust to be used to bid at a foreclosure sale. The client was not the successful bidder, but Forman removed the money from the trust account and failed to return the funds.

• Dennis Hernandez, 3339 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, was suspended for 90 days and ordered to attend ethics school and pay restitution totaling $19,766 to six clients.

Hernandez did not adequately supervise his employees, records state. In at least two instances, a client met with an associate and a non-lawyer employee whom the client thought to be an attorney. On a section of his firm's Web site titled "Our Attorneys," Hernandez listed the names and biographies of several people who were not Florida lawyers.

• Marvin Lee Stull, 1923 16th St. N., St. Petersburg, was suspended until further order. According to an emergency suspension order, Stull used a dead client's debit card. In June, he was arrested for failure to appear in court.

• John A. Yanchek III, 889 N. Washington Blvd., Suite B, Sarasota, was suspended until further order. According to records, Yanchek committed perjury in connection with a real estate transaction in which he acted as a closing agent and a title insurance agent. In three real estate transactions in which Yanchek acted as the escrow agent, he misrepresented to sellers that deposit money was in his trust account. Yanchek also failed to timely file real estate paperwork and didn't respond to a grievance committee's request for documents.

In May, Yanchek was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. He also was ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution to eight banks.