Former Fugitive Ex-Lawyer Pleads Guilty to U.S. Fraud Scheme
A former partner at a major U.S. law firm who spent two decades as a fugitive while avoiding charges that he ran a fraudulent investment scheme has pleaded guilty to carrying out a different scam while living in Massachusetts under an alias, according to Reuters.
Scott Wolas, 69, pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to defrauding 20 investors in two real estate projects out of $1.7 million while he was using someone else’s identity, Nate Raymond reports.
In the 1990s, Wolas was a litigator in the New York office of Hunton & Williams. Authorities said he fled about the time of a 1997 indictment in New York and turned up in Florida where he became a securities broker while using a college roommate’s name. When he was facing charges in Florida, he moved to Massachusetts, where he used various names while working as a real estate agent.