Former Seacoast attorney Sent To Prison For Defrauding Disabled Woman
New Hampshire Journal, Thu, Jun 25, 2026 Justin Nadeau (New Hampshire Attorney General's Office)
NH Seacoast former lawyer Justin P. Nadeau, 53, was sentenced Monday, June 28, 2026 in Rockingham County Superior Court to 7 1/2 to 15 years in New Hampshire State Prison following his April 1 conviction on one count of theft by deception, two counts of financial exploitation of a disabled adult, 11 counts of falsifying physical evidence, and one count of forgery.
The sentence breaks down to two concurrent 5-to-10-year prison terms on the financial exploitation charges, followed by a consecutive 2 1/2-to-5-year term on five counts of falsifying physical evidence. That brings Nadeau’s total stand-committed sentence to 7 1/2 to 15 years.
For the remaining charges, Nadeau received suspended 2 1/2- to 5-year sentences on each of the six falsifying physical evidence counts, and a suspended 3- to 6-year sentence on the forgery count.
He took close to $300,000 from a woman with a brain injury who had come to him for help, and then launching a bone-headed cover-up when the New Hampshire Attorney Discipline Office started investigating his “ethics.”
“It’s difficult for me to imagine something worse for a lawyer to do,” one investigating member of the Professional Conduct Committee said, according to court records.
The charges stem from Nadeau’s relationship with Exeter woman Shawn Fahey, who hired him after she suffered a traumatic brain injury. During their business relationship, Nadeau convinced Fahey to give him nearly $300,000 in loans secured by a condo he did not own, as well as the anticipated proceeds from a pending defamation lawsuit he had filed against the Portsmouth Police Department. Nadeau reportedly told Fahey he was “strapped for cash” until the defamation lawsuit was resolved.
It Gets More Complicated
The lawsuit against Portsmouth police arose from the arrest of Portsmouth man Christian Jennings. Jennings was allegedly found with quantities of marijuana, Ecstasy, amphetamines, a loaded gun and $42,000 in cash. According to police, Nadeau was handling an $85,000 marina investment for Jennings before the arrest, though the marina deal never closed. Nadeau brought the lawsuit after police opened an investigation into whether he was laundering drug money. The defamation case was settled in 2019.
Nadeau also allegedly hid the $165,000 he collected after he sent Fahey to a Massachusetts attorney to handle her injury case, according to the PCC investigation. Nadeau reportedly collected referral fees from the Massachusetts attorney, as well as other money related to Fahey’s case.
The Attorney General’s Office said the evidence at trial showed Nadeau fabricated documentation, produced false electronic file metadata, destroyed or concealed his computer, and forged his then-wife’s signature on a backdated promissory note.
Before his criminal and professional downfall, Nadeau tried to make a go of it in politics. He was the 2004 Democratic nominee in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, losing to Republican Jeb Bradley.
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