Criminal Justice
Ex-Con Accused of Posing as Sentencing Expert, Costing N.Y. $60K
Posted Jul 9, 2008, 11:44 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
An ex-convict has been accused of billing New York courts more than $60,000 for phony work as a sentencing specialist.
Richard Gottfried pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny, offering a false instrument for filing and falsifying business records, the Associated Press reports. He was placed on New York’s roster of court-appointed experts as a mitigation expert, even though he was convicted of federal fraud charges in 1996, according to an earlier story.
Gottfried was also accused of defrauding Philadelphia courts of $373,000 in a similar scheme that relied on a phony law degree and forged lawyers’ signatures on invoices, the story says. He was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison after a guilty plea, according to a report by the New York Department of Investigation.