The FBI is investigating a suspected international fraud scheme said to involve a suspended Milwaukee lawyer, $16.2 million from China, an English bank, a man who claims to be an English solicitor and ... John Hancock's signature.

At the center of the probe is veteran Milwaukee lawyer Michael Krill, whose law license was suspended by the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. The court employed a rarely used rule that allows emergency temporary suspensions before the Office of Lawyer Regulation files a formal complaint.

"Krill's repeated acts of dishonesty, delay and contempt for the judicial process" makes his "continued practice of law ... a threat to the public and the administration of justice," Karl Wyler, an OLR investigator, wrote in a June affidavit urging the immediate suspension.

The FBI and the Racine County Sheriff's Office are also investigating the 59-year-old attorney. The Racine investigation centers around $300,000 belonging to ex-clients that Krill received but has not turned over despite a court order that he do so. Since May, Krill has been fined $500 a day for contempt for failing to turn the money over to the clients' new lawyers, court records show.

Krill was ordered Monday to come up with about $350,000 — the $300,000 in client funds plus the accrued daily contempt fine — in two weeks or spend 30 days in jail. Krill has repeatedly promised in court to produce the money in 14 days — and he repeated that pledge Monday during a brief hearing before Racine County Circuit Judge David Paulson.

The repeated delays "leads me to believe that the money just isn't there, Paulson said.

A disheveled Krill turned his back on a reporter and declined to comment after the hearing. Asked why he was sure he would have the money this time, Krill responded: "Didn't you hear me say no comment?"

Krill said last week that those funds are "tied up" in an investment that is the subject of an FBI investigation.

In that deal, investors coughed up hundreds of thousands of dollars that they were told was needed to free up $16.2 million in Chinese money that is being held in an English bank. The money is earmarked for Eric Murray, a New York promoter and Krill client, Krill said. Investors were told they would receive astronomical returns of up to 33 times their investment from Murray, who owns Unite2Jam Inc.

Krill "perpetrated a scheme to defraud clients and associates out of funds the victims believed they were investing in lucrative international financial transactions," according to an affidavit by then-FBI Agent John Klugiewicz.

The affidavit used to obtain warrants to raid and search Krill's downtown office and east side home on June 29 states that "the underlying financial transactions and supporting documents at issue appear to be complete fabrications."

One such document — which was purported to be an official English financial record — is signed with the John Hancock signature found on the Declaration of Independence. Arthur Middleton's signature was also lifted from the Declaration of Independence and was stamped on the same document, according to Klugiewicz's affidavit, which contained a copy of the document. Klugiewicz has since retired from the FBI.

Krill has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing to authorities, clients and in interviews with the Journal Sentinel.

Calls probe 'garbage'

In a brief interview on the front porch of his east side home, Krill labeled the FBI probe "garbage" — a description he toned down during a later interview in his downtown law office — and described himself as a victim, saying he invested $300,000 in the transaction at the center of the probe.

Krill said other investors he worked with poured $600,000 to $700,000 into the transaction, though Wyler, the OLR investigator, wrote that Krill's financial records indicate the figure may exceed $1 million.

Court records show numerous questions have been raised about individuals in the transaction, which Wyler called an "advanced fee loan scam."

For example, playing a key role in the transaction is a mysterious figure named Harvey Graham, who claims to be an English solicitor — a position similar to an attorney — representing Murray. Graham's letterhead shows his firm's name as Harvey Graham Solicitors & Co.

But Lee Shrimpton of England's Solicitors Regulation Authority said in an email that "there has never been anyone by the name of Harvey Graham on the Roll of Solicitors, nor is there a firm that we regulate by the name of Harvey Graham Solicitors & Co."

In a brief and testy phone interview, Harvey Graham said he was a licensed solicitor and that his father — Graham Harvey — was also a licensed solicitor involved in the transaction. He declined to discuss specifics of the transaction. Krill said Harvey Graham also told him about his father's role in the deal.

Shrimpton said there are two licensed solicitors named Graham Harvey who are currently practicing and both told the Journal Sentinel they do not know Harvey Graham.

"I have never heard anything about this and I do not have any issues with anybody in America," Graham Harvey of the Symonds Solicitors, Plymouth, England, wrote in an email Friday.

A 2016 email to Murray that appears to be from England's NatWest Bank — one of the banks that investors were told were holding all or some of the $16.2 million — is also being questioned. It is signed by Michael Burrow, who is identified as an assistant vice president at NatWest.

"I believe the letter to be legitimate," Krill said. "Michael Burrow exists "

However, NatWest spokesman Sean Palmer called the letter "a complete fabrication," adding, "They even got (Burrow's) job title wrong."

Burrow is actually the personal banking managing director for the North of England, Palmer said.

Also being questioned is a document that appears to be a United Nations certification that the money in the transaction is not drug related. But the small print at the bottom of the document implies the certificate is actually a course completion certificate. It states: "Recognizing that the following were successfully completed."

Krill said he was aware of some of the issues in the documents he and others received but is convinced the documents are authentic.

So why does the signature of John Hancock, who died in 1793, appear on a document?

"There was some explanation," Krill said, though he couldn't remember the specifics.

Krill downplayed his role in bringing investors into the deal, saying that work was done by Murray.

"I drafted some contracts, that's all I did," Krill said, though he acknowledged telling potential investors he put his own money into the deal.

Both the FBI and state regulators believe Krill played a key role in bringing in investors.

"Krill's licensure as an attorney lent credibility to the scam," the OLR's Wyler wrote. "Krill certified the authenticity of patently fraudulent documents to victims of the scam."

Ex-clients file complaints

Dean Rossey, a Menomonee Falls contractor who was one of four former Krill clients who filed complaints with regulators, agreed.

"He kept calling us and saying we need more money," said Rossey, who said he invested about $50,000. Rossey gave Krill $25,000 in May 2014 "in exchange for the right to a $350,000 portion of a $16.5 million payment from an entity in China," the FBI affidavit states.

William Patch, a Wauwatosa developer and longtime Krill associate, was told he "would shortly receive $250,000 in return for his $7,500 investment," the FBI affidavit states. The pitch came from Murray, the New York promoter. Patch said Krill recruited him and set him up with Murray.

Murray did not return calls or emails for comment.

Patch, who said he invested more than $200,000, vouched for Krill's honesty, saying that if "this is a scam I do believe that (Krill) has been scammed like everybody else."

Meanwhile, Krill is also dealing with the contempt citation and the sheriff's fraud investigation into the $300,000 that he was ordered by Racine CountyJudge Paulson to produce by March.

"Attorney Krill, I'm almost beyond words because you can't do what you did ... and then you come in and just basically say, 'Oh we'll get it and then I'm going to have it by a certain date' ... and then nothing happens and there's no explanation," Paulson told Krill in a hearing May 12, "And now we're told we have to wait two more weeks. I'm not convinced it's going to be here in two weeks."

Krill told the Journal Sentinel the money was tied up in the London investment but he declined to provide details.

"I talked to my clients about it (but) there's nothing in writing," Krill said.

Krill said, he plans to soon fly to London to sort things out, make sure the money is in the bank and find out if Harvey is a licensed solicitor.

Despite the investigations and discrepancies, Krill said the London deal is legitimate and will pay off.

"I still think the transaction is going to come together," he said.

Jane Onyanga-Omara of USA Today contributed to this story from London.