Former New York Law Firm Partner Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Conspiring to Defraud Two New York Law Firms out of More Than $7 Million

NEWARK, N.J. – A Bergen County, New Jersey, woman was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for using bogus litigation support companies to obtain millions of dollars from two law firms where she was a partner, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Keila Ravelo, 52, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty to two counts of an indictment charging her with conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Count One) and tax evasion (Count Nine). Judge McNulty imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

Ravelo worked as a partner for a company identified in the indictment as “Law Firm 1” from July 1, 2005, through October 2010. She then became partner in another law firm, identified in the indictment as “Law Firm 2,” and worked there from October 2010 through November 2014.

From 2008 through July 2014, Ravelo and her husband, Melvin Feliz, 52, conspired to defraud Law Firm 1 and Law Firm 2, forming two limited liability companies, “Vendor 1” and “Vendor 2,” which purported to provide litigation support to the firms, but in fact provided no actual services to the firms. Ravelo and Feliz controlled Vendor 1 and Vendor 2 bank accounts and submitted invoices to Law Firm 1 and Law Firm 2 for work that was never performed for the law firms or their clients. Ravelo, in her capacity as a partner at the law firms, approved payments to Vendor 1 and Vendor 2, which Ravelo and Feliz later used for personal expenses. The law firms paid Vendor 1 and Vendor 2 approximately $7.8 million. Ravelo and Feliz willfully failed to report the fraudulent earnings on their tax returns.

On Aug. 25, 2015, Feliz pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of tax evasion. Feliz admitted that from 2008 through July 2014, he and Ravelo controlled the Vendor 1 and Vendor 2 bank accounts and submitted invoices to Law Firm 1and Law Firm 2 for work that was never performed for the law firms or their clients. He admitted that Ravelo, in her capacity as a partner at the law firms, approved payments to Vendor 1 and Vendor 2 that Ravelo and Feliz later used for personal expenses. Before pleading guilty for the role he played in this wire fraud and tax evasion conspiracy, Feliz pleaded guilty to an indictment which charged him and two other men with conspiring to distribute approximately 20 kilograms of cocaine.    

In addition to the prison term, Judge McNulty sentenced Ravelo to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited law enforcement officers of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge John R. Tafur, and law enforcement officers of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Newark Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Valerie A. Nickerson, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

This case was conducted under the auspices of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Kogan, Brian Urbano of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division, Ronnell Wilson, Chief of the OCDETF Unit, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Ward, Senior Trial Counsel of the Asset Recovery and Money Laundering Unit.