Biglaw

Former Willkie Partner Pleads Guilty To Role In Fraud Scheme

Three years later and we have a guilty plea.

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Keila Ravelo used to be a high-flying Biglaw antitrust partner at Willkie Farr (and before that at Hunton & Williams). But three years ago, that all came crashing down when she was arrested in 2014 for a variety of financial crimes.

Ravelo, along with her husband, was initially indicted on charges of wire fraud and embezzlement for allegedly creating dummy corporations to funnel “legal consulting fees” (for work that was never actually done) from both of her former firms. The indictment was later updated to include charges of tax evasion and using fake billings to funnel the allegedly fraudulently obtained $7.8 million in litigation support fees. Her (now estranged) husband pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in August 2015.

Today, the case comes to its conclusion. In a District of New Jersey courtroom, Ravelo pleaded guilty one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, on the condition the remaining counts be dropped. She will also sell assets to pay restitution. As reported by New York Law Journal, the plea didn’t go off without any hitches before eventually being provisionally accepted by Judge McNulty:

Monday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty of the District of New Jersey hit a few snags when Ravelo was questioned about details of her actions in order to provide that her guilty plea had a basis in fact. Ravelo engaged in lengthy, whispered consultations with defense counsel, Lawrence Lustberg of Gibbons in Newark and Steve Sadow of Schulten Ward Turner & Weiss in Atlanta, before ultimately answering affirmatively to questions such as whether she committed fraud amounting to $7.8 million through a scheme of fraudulent payments to vendors.

The government ultimately accepted her answers even after she added caveats that her involvement in the scheme began in 2012 and that she did not know the total cost of the scheme.

An interesting — if somewhat anticlimactic — ending to a legal saga that has stretched out almost three years.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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