Criminal Defense Lawyer Charged in Alleged $1.5M Fraud On Clients Obtained Under False Pretenses
A Texas criminal defense attorney has been arrested and criminally charged, along with two other defendants including his wife, for allegedly defrauding clients of nearly $1.5 million by persuading them, under false pretenses, to retain him to do their legal work in federal cases in Houston.
Abraham Moses Fisch, 52, faces federal charges including conspiracy, obstruction and money-laundering. He is accused of participating in a scheme in which defendants were allegedly told that a former used car financier who is not an attorney had the contacts to get charges dismissed if clients hired Fisch and paid expensive retainers, according to the Houston Chronicle and a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
He is also accused of not timely filing tax returns during the five-year period, ending earlier this month, that he and co-defendant Lloyd Glen Williams, 67, allegedly brought in $1.480 million through the claimed scheme. Williams pleaded guilty earlier this week to obstruction and filing a false tax return but hasn’t yet been sentenced.
The newspaper article doesn’t include any comment from Fisch or the other defendants.
A message left by the ABA Journal for Fisch at his law office phone number was not immediately returned.
