NEWARK — An attorney from Englewood Cliffs admitted she and her husband created companies that charged two New York law firms millions of dollars for services that were never provided, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Keila Ravelo, 52, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion. She faces up to 25 years in prison when she’s sentenced in March 2018.
Ravelo was a partner at a law firm between 2005 and 2010, and served as a partner at a second firm from 2010 to 2014. Starting in 2008, she and her husband, Melvin Feliz, 51, operated two companies that billed the firms for litigation support services but actually performed no work. Ravelo, as a partner in the law firms, approved the payments to the companies.
The law firms paid the companies nearly $8 million, which neither Ravelo nor Feliz claimed as income to the government.
Feliz, who pleaded guilty in 2015, is also awaiting sentencing.
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