Phila. PI Attorney Who Stole $2.1M From Clients, Law Firm and Family Gets 5 Years in Club Fed
Sentenced today to five years in federal prison for fleecing at least 10 victims, including his clients, then-law partner and family members of $2.1 million between 2005 and 2008, a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer was taken directly into custody.
Jeffrey Abramowitz, 48, “spun a web of lies, hoaxes and bogus documents,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri in court papers. The government said he stole $271,736 in legal fees from Klevan & Abramowitz, the now-defunct firm in which he was a partner, as well as from individual clients and his sister-in-law and her husband, reports the Philadelphia Daily News.
A Korean immigrant told the court the attorney cost him and his wife their home, business and life savings, driving him to attempt suicide, CBS reports.
Abramowitz pleaded guilty last year to mail and wire fraud charges and filing a false tax return in 2007. Prosecutors said he filed false tax returns for four years, in an effort to conceal his income, although he pleaded guilty only to one tax count.
His sentence requires him to make restitution of $1.6 million to his victims and another $360,405 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Partner Accused of Embezzling $1M, Faking Paperwork and Forging Signatures”
