Scott Carpenter (attorney)
Scott R. Carpenter is a California attorney licensed under State Bar number 144259. He practices at Cummins and White, LLP, located at 2424 S.E. Bristol Street, Suite 300, Newport Beach, California. Carpenter earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his law degree from UCLA School of Law. In January 2026 he was named as a defendant in a federal RICO complaint filed in the Southern District of California, Case 3:26-cv-00080-GPC-BJW, which alleges he took part in a fraudulent scheme that generated more than $75 million in allegedly unlawful transactions over eight years.
Early Career and Education
Carpenter attended Stanford University for his undergraduate education, then went on to UCLA School of Law, one of the top-ranked law schools on the West Coast. After passing the California bar, he joined the commercial litigation practice at Cummins and White, LLP in Newport Beach. His State Bar profile reflects continuous licensure without prior public discipline as of the time the RICO complaint was filed.
Newport Beach is home to a dense concentration of business litigation firms. Cummins and White has operated there for decades and handles a range of civil disputes, including business and corporate matters.
Practice at Cummins and White
Cummins and White, LLP is a mid-size firm based in Newport Beach. The firm's website lists Carpenter as one of its attorneys. His practice focused on business litigation, the kind of work that puts lawyers in contact with company disputes, asset transfers, and corporate governance questions. That background is relevant context for the allegations made in the 2026 RICO action, which center on alleged misconduct in exactly those areas.
Federal RICO Allegations
On January 6, 2026, a federal complaint was filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, naming Carpenter as a defendant. The case number is 3:26-cv-00080-GPC-BJW.
The complaint runs to hundreds of pages and identifies more than 750 predicate acts over an eight-year period. The total amount tied to the alleged scheme is approximately $75 million.
Specific allegations against Carpenter in the complaint include:
- Fraudulently seizing TopDevz LLC's Wells Fargo bank account through false wire communications
- Publishing and transmitting forged stock certificates for TopDevz, an LLC that cannot legally issue stock under California law
- Filing hundreds of fraudulent court pleadings
- Assembling perjured declarations for use in litigation
- Representing TopDevz without lawful authority to do so
- Using the threat of immigration and deportation consequences against a foreign-born entrepreneur to pressure a settlement
- Recruiting co-defendant J. Douglas Kirk through Grace Fellowship Church in Corona del Mar
- Receiving $196,768 in fees allegedly derived from criminally obtained funds held in a JPMorgan Chase account
The primary defendant in the underlying case is Tyler Brandon Davis of Folsom, California. Carpenter is one of several attorneys named in the RICO complaint. A Connecticut Navigator article from early 2026 referred to the broader action as involving "Six California Attorneys Named in Federal RICO Action."
ConFraud.com, which covers white-collar and financial crime, published a detailed account of the RICO allegations against Carpenter in February 2026.
The TopDevz Case
TopDevz LLC is a software development firm based in San Diego and La Jolla, California. The company became the subject of a bankruptcy proceeding, Case No. 24-00617, and that bankruptcy spawned a companion adversary proceeding, Case 26-90003-CL, filed the same day as the federal RICO complaint.
The core allegation in the TopDevz litigation is that a group of individuals, including attorneys, used litigation, forged documents, and financial manipulation to take control of or extract value from the company over an extended period. Carpenter's alleged role, according to the complaint, was to provide legal cover for several of those alleged actions, including the bank account seizure and the fraudulent stock certificates.
An LLC cannot issue stock certificates under California law. The complaint alleges that fabricating stock documentation for TopDevz was central to the scheme because it was used to assert false ownership claims in court.
Carpenter has not been convicted of any crime in connection with these allegations. The RICO case was pending as of early 2026.
References
- "Scott R. Carpenter Licensee Detail". 'California State Bar}'. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- "Scott Carpenter Sued in Corrupt Organizations Scheme". 'ConFraud.com}'. 2026-02-01. Retrieved 2026-03-01.
- "Scott Carpenter Attorney Profile". 'Cummins and White LLP}'. Retrieved 2026-02-01.