TAMPA, Fla. — Roberta A. Guedes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a fraudulent scheme wherein she posed and practiced law as a licensed attorney. Guedes faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to the plea agreement, in 2014, Guedes graduated from Stetson University College of Law, but twice failed the Florida Bar exam. Guedes has never been licensed to practice law in Florida nor in any other state. Despite this, in the fall of 2014, Guedes incorporated two fake law firms—Ferguson and McKenzie LLC and Immigration and Litigation Law Office, Inc. Guedes marketed her legal services and rented office space at the Rivergate Tower in downtown Tampa. She took on multiple client-victims, misrepresenting herself as an attorney. Guedes charged her client-victims fees for her services, which ranged from representation in immigration proceedings to family law matters. At times, Guedes impersonated a law school classmate and licensed attorney who had no involvement in Guedes’s sham law firms. As part of her fraudulent scheme, Guedes filed court pleadings and immigration petitions using her former classmate’s name and Florida Bar number, and also made several personal appearances in federal immigration court in Orlando and Hillsborough County court posing as a licensed attorney. Read more at: https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/law-school-graduate-who-posed-licensed-attorney-pleads-guilty-mail-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft
Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.
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