Former Partner Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison For Scheme To Defraud Biglaw Firms

Her future includes a minimum-security federal prison in West Virginia.

onOctober 11, 2018 at 11:18 AMMarch 14, 2019 at 2:43 PM

The long, sordid legal drama of former Biglaw partner Keila Ravelo has finally entered the sentencing phase. Ravelo, formerly a partner at both Hunton & Williams and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, pleaded guilty last year to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a $7.8 million litigation vendor scheme to defraud her former firms. Yesterday, Judge Kevin McNulty of the District of New Jersey sentenced Ravelo to five years in prison with three years of supervised release.

For those who don’t remember the details of Ravelo’s misdeeds, let’s give y’all a brief primer. Ravelo, along with her now-estranged husband, Melvin Feliz, were arrested back in 2014 and 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 amended to include charges of tax evasion and using fake billings to funnel the $7.8 million they obtained in litigation support fees back to themselves for personal use, which included financing a “lifestyle of the rich and famous” — at least that’s how prosecutors describe it. The couple bought multiple properties, expensive artwork, jewelry, and private jet rides.

Feliz pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in August 2015, and was sentenced to four years in prison. Ravelo’s sentence added an extra year on, as Law.com reports, because Judge McNulty seemed to be compelled by the prosecution’s argument that Ravelo’s breach of trust of her former firms warranted additional jail time:

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From Pilot and Above The Law

It was Ravelo, not Feliz, who was a partner at Hunton and then Willkie and who had built relationships with the firms and the client, prosecutors said, and it was Ravelo who manipulated the payment mechanisms to keep the conspiracy going.

Prosecutors said Ravelo went to great lengths to keep the conspiracy going. For instance, they said, Ravelo posed as the head of one of the bogus vendors and lied to her law firm and each of her partners in order to cover up and extend the conspiracy. They also said Ravelo used people over whom she had influence to help hide her illegal activity, including at one point causing an associate she led to submit a summary chart detailing alleged vendor work product to Willkie.

The government said in 2012, after Willkie almost detected the activity, she orchestrated the payment of the bills through an accounting firm that would be reimbursed by the law firm.

Ravelo is expected to surrender by January, and was recommended to a women’s minimum-security federal prison in West Virginia.

headshot Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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).