Two BigLaw firms paid $5.75M to partner's fake companies, prosecutors allege
A former antitrust partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Hunton & Williams has been charged with bilking the law firms and a client out of $5.75 million by creating dummy corporations that submitted bills for litigation support work.
The lawyer, Keila Ravelo, 49, and her husband, Melvin Feliz, 50, are charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud, report the Bergen County Record, Reuters and the New York Law Journal. A press release about charges against the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, couple is here, and the federal complaint is here (PDF).
Feliz is accused in a separate case of leading a New Jersey drug trafficking ring, the Bergen County Record says.
Ravelo is accused of submitting more than $5.75 million in phony consulting bills to two law firms: “Law Firm 1” from 2008 to 2010, and “Law Firm 2” from 2010 to July 2014, according to the criminal complaint. The media reports identify Law Firm 1 as Hunton & Williams and Law Firm 2 as Willkie Farr. The documents do not identify the client; Reuters notes Ravelo has helped represent MasterCard Inc. in a series of antitrust suits.
Spokesperson for both firms say they are cooperating with investigators.
The Bergen County Record has comments from the couple’s lawyers. Ravelo’s attorney, Aidan O’Connor, said the criminal complaint is “weak” and “suspicious,” given the drug trial against Feliz scheduled to begin in about two weeks. Feliz’s attorney, Patrick Joyce, said it was “vague what Mr. Feliz did that was illegal” in the new case.
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