BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS FBI looking...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

FBI looking for fake attorney suspect

A Newport Beach man who posed as an attorney to courts, lawyers

and clients was indicted by federal authorities Thursday on two

counts of making false declarations by telling a federal court that

he was a licensed attorney, officials said.

Harold Goldstein used the name of David Goldstein, a real attorney

in Redwood City. FBI agents tried to arrest Goldstein on Thursday,

but have not been able to locate the 58-year-old man, said Thom

Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Harold Goldstein has appeared in court on at least six federal

criminal matters, as well as civil cases and immigration matters.

Officials started investigating him when employees of his “law firm”

became suspicious after seeing a brief he filed on behalf of Harold

Goldstein to modify the terms of his supervised release, Mrozek said.

He said Goldstein is actually on a supervised release and on

probation after he was convicted of mail fraud in January 2000. He

was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. He served out the time

in March and was on supervised release, during which time he is not

permitted to be in business for himself.

He is also required to have his finances monitored by an

accountant to ensure payment of restitution to the victims of his

previous scheme. If convicted, Goldstein faces fives years in federal

prison for each count. Mrozek said it is “very uncommon” for someone

to impersonate an attorney.