After 20 Years Pretending to Be a Lawyer, NY Fraudster Gets Six Months in Jail

A man who posed as an immigration attorney for nearly 20 years was sentenced last week to six months in jail.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office began investigating Victor M. Espinal after several of his clients alerted the Immigrant Affairs Program Hotline. Arrested in January, Mr. Espinal allegedly carried business cards identifying himself as an attorney with the "Immigrant Affairs Office" of the "N.Y. Legal Defense Unit," licensed to practice in California and the Dominican Republic.

Clients of Mr. Espinal, who has held himself out as an immigration attorney since at least 1992, according to the district attorney, came largely from the Hispanic community.

Last week, Acting Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus in Manhattan sentenced Mr. Espinal, who pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, first-degree scheme to defraud, and one count of practicing as an attorney without being admitted and registered, to six months in jail and five years of probation. He also was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution.