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Both Melvin Feliz, 54, and Keila Ravelo, 55, previously admitted that they’d formed two limited liability companies that purported to provide litigation support for Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Hunton & Williams -- but, in fact, didn't.
Ravelo, who’d been a partner with both firms, approved invoices submitted by her husband. The law firms paid $7.8 million to the bogus companies, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.Both then used the money for themselves, the U.S. attorney said.
Ill-gotten gains included the couple's $2.3 million home in Englewood Cliffs, a $1 million condo in Miami and other property, as well as a 2009 Bentley Continental Flying Spur sedan valued at upwards of $80,000, he said.
Feliz failed to report the income on his tax returns, including $2.36 million in illicit profits from 2012 alone, Carpenito said.
Separately, Feliz and co-defendants Irving Olivero-Pena, 48, of Edgewater, and Robert Crawford, 45, of Long Island City, NY each previously pleaded guilty to their roles in a cocaine distribution scheme.
The trio admitted giving a courier $549,950 to bring to California to buy 20 kilos of cocaine. Authorities intercepted the drug shipment before it could be sent to New Jersey.
Crawford was sentenced in July 2015 to 10 years in prison. Olivero-Pena is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Feliz and Ravelo, rather than go to trial in their case, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion. Ravelo was sentenced in October 2018 to five years in federal prison.
SEE: Englewood Cliffs Attorney Gets 5 Years Federal Time For Conning Partners Out Of $7,800,000
Both will have to serve just about all of their sentences because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
In addition to the federal prison term, U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty sentenced Feliz to five years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of $7.9 million. Restitution will be determined at a later date, Carpenito said.
Carpenito credited special agents from the DEA’s Newark Division and from IRS-Criminal Investigation with the probe leading to Feliz’s guilty plea and sentencing, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan of his Cybercrime Unit in Newark.
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