A former Bedford attorney who pleaded guilty to defrauding his clients out of more than $2.4 million over a six-year period faces a potentially lengthy prison sentence on charges of wire fraud and money laundering.

The law license of John Allen, 63, was suspended last year after the U.S. attorney’s office said he used the more than $2.4 million for unrelated business and personal expenses between 2014 and 2019.

Allen worked primarily in commercial real estate acquisition law as well as development and secured lending transaction deals for his clients.

According to a news release issued by U.S. Attorney Scott Murray announcing Allen’s guilty plea, Allen’s clients gave him money to hold in escrow for specific purposes, including private lending, real estate transaction and other business deals. Murray said Allen transferred funds from a trust account into a bank account he controlled and then spent the money on personal expenses and other business-related expenses.

At the same time, he told clients that the money was in the proper account and was being used for its intended purpose, the news release said.

In one case, Murray said, a client was led to invest $1.5 million in fraudulent promissory notes that the attorney had created using other people’s identities. Allen kept the money for himself, Murray said, while at the same time stealing nearly $1 million from other clients and using it for personal expenses.

To hide the sources of the money he stole from clients, Murray said the attorney comingled proceeds from fraudulent activities with legitimate funds and completed a number of transfers from multiple accounts and spent the money on personal expenses. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2021.