Fake Sheepshead Bay Lawyer Exposed For Tricking Dozens Of Clients
He duped dozens of clients before he was unmasked as a fraud.
Mikhail Perlov, who operated a fake law practice out of an office on the corner of Avenue U and East 19th Street, has admitted to tricking clients into believing he was a licensed attorney, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Sunday.
Authorities say Perlov made no effort to hide illegal activity. He posted advertisements and even a photo of his face in the Russian newspaper Ruskaya Reklama, where he claimed he was licensed in New York, New Jersey, and Florida. His ads also promised to “get charges dropped” and “get you out of jail” and included a lengthy list of practice specialties, such as criminal law, DWI defense, domestic violence, divorce and family rights, and many others, according to the attorney general’s office
In total, investigators say Perlov represented 51 people and even appeared in court for many of his cases.
“Practicing law without a license can have devastating consequences on unsuspecting victims seeking legitimate and honest legal advice and representation,” Schneiderman said in a press release. “Mr. Perlov’s blatant disregard for the law is despicable. We have zero tolerance for this kind of illegal and deceptive business practice.”
Perlov’s scam first came to the attention of the attorney general in the fall of 2014, when some of his clients, suspecting their lawyer was a sham due to inactivity in their cases, reported him to investigators, Schneiderman’s office says.
In one case, Perlov stalled for months on a divorce case in which a client had paid him $4,600 to represent her. When she complained about the lack of progress in her case, Perlov berated her and then handed her a “childishly constructed document made to look like a letter from Chase bank,” which claiming her husband’s account had been frozen, the attorney general’s press release says.
“The letter was so blatantly fraudulent that the consumer immediately demanded a return of all of her payments. Perlov instead kept her money and insisted she seek another attorney to complete her divorce,” the AG’s office wrote in the press release.
A court found Perlov engaged in unauthorized practice of law, deceptive business practices, false advertising, and fraud. He has been ordered to stop operating as an unlicensed attorney and to pay at least $52,000 to refund his customers. He has also been forced to pay for the cost of the investigation as well as a civil penalty, the attorney general says.