Fraudster attorney pleads guilty to filing hundreds of bogus disability suitsBy Ben Feuerherd
July 18, 2022
A notorious ambulance-chasing lawyer whom The Post first exposed as a scammer in 2019 has pleaded guilty to a federal crime for filing more than 300 bunk lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act in New York and Florida.
Stuart Finkelstein, 67, copped to one count of mail fraud in Manhattan federal court last week for filing suits on behalf of two clients who had no clue he was claiming to represent them, the Justice Department said.
Finkelstein stole the identities of his two victims and then settled the fraudulent suits to pocket more than $900,000 in attorney’s fees, prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said.
The complaints were filed against public establishments pursuant to the ADA, and appeared to be brought on behalf of plaintiffs retained by the corrupt attorney.
In reality, at least two purported plaintiffs for whom Finkelstein had supposedly filed the suits never retained him or authorized him to take the legal action, federal prosecutors said. The suits sought attorney fees and other relief.
Finkelstein, of Davie, Florida, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The Post first unmasked the attorney as a fraud in a February 2019 expose that reported how he had filed dozens of lawsuits in New York on behalf of clients without their consent.
Finkelstein filed some 25 lawsuits on behalf of one Bronx man, José Figueroa, without telling him about a single one.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/07/18/fraudster-attorney-pleads-guilty-to-filing-hundreds-of-bogus-ada-suits/
