Lawyer accused of stealing from the poor
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Russian emigre Nikolai Tehin put himself through law school and apparently obtained the American dream after three decades of lawyering: a 73-foot yacht, a seemingly endless fleet of luxury cars and an $8 million home.
But the rags-to-riches saga could end in federal prison for the now-disgraced and disbarred attorney. Tehin's fraud trial began with jury selection Monday and he faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted.
Federal prosecutors allege Tehin financed his lavish lifestyle by ripping off more than $2 million from his clients, who included low-income apartment tenants, disabled children and struggling immigrants.
Tehin, 57, is charged him with 15 counts of mail fraud, money laundering and related felonies, all connected to accusations that he spent his clients' settlement money on himself and to pay off other clients in a Ponzi-type fraud scheme.
"Lawyers owe a duty of loyalty to their clients," U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said after Tehin was arrested at his home last year. "Nikolai Tehin is accused not just of breaching that duty in the most egregious way, but of violating federal law to enrich himself at the expense of the people who trusted him."
A spokeswoman for Ryan's office didn't return a telephone call placed late Friday.
Harold Rosenthal, Tehin's lawyer, conceded Tehin grossly mismanaged his clients' money and caused a lot of suffering for his former clients and others. But Rosenthal said Tehin's conduct was not criminal.
"This was harmful, this was bad and it is something that he is ashamed of," Rosenthal said. "But it's not a mail fraud. It's not the crimes that they have charged."
Rosenthal said Tehin was a talented attorney who failed miserably with handling success and allowed his law practice's finances to spiral out of control.
"This a cautionary tale on how to deal with money and talent," Rosenthal said. "It's a cautionary tale on how one must be careful when you go from being a very poor immigrant to a person who is dealing with sums of money which were incomprehensible to his parents."
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Tehin began his alleged fraud in 2001 when he took about $1.3 million owed to dozens of low-income tenants he represented in Napa and squandered it on personal and professional expenses. The clients, many of them migrant farmworkers from Mexico, had sued their landlord for failing to keep rental units habitable. Public interest lawyers enlisted Tehin to win the landmark settlement.
"He put my organization in a dire situation," said Roy Chernus, executive director of Legal Aid of the North Bay, which retained Tehin in the housing case. Chernus is scheduled to testify against Tehin this week.
Chernus said his small staff spent an inordinate amount of time chasing after Tehin, who ultimately paid most of the Napa tenants. But prosecutors allege that to pay them, Tehin pilfered from at least three malpractice settlements -- including cases involving a baby born with severe brain damage, two children born with cystic fibrosis and a girl who died while under a medical supervision.
In those cases, the alleged victims told FBI agents that Tehin either never reported receiving a settlement check, stalled when they pressed for payment or tried to short change them by charging for fictitious expert witnesses.
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Russian emigre Nikolai Tehin put himself through law school and apparently obtained the American dream after three decades of lawyering: a 73-foot yacht, a seemingly endless fleet of luxury cars and an $8 million home.
But the rags-to-riches saga could end in federal prison for the now-disgraced and disbarred attorney. Tehin's fraud trial began with jury selection Monday and he faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted.
Federal prosecutors allege Tehin financed his lavish lifestyle by ripping off more than $2 million from his clients, who included low-income apartment tenants, disabled children and struggling immigrants.
Tehin, 57, is charged him with 15 counts of mail fraud, money laundering and related felonies, all connected to accusations that he spent his clients' settlement money on himself and to pay off other clients in a Ponzi-type fraud scheme.
"Lawyers owe a duty of loyalty to their clients," U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said after Tehin was arrested at his home last year. "Nikolai Tehin is accused not just of breaching that duty in the most egregious way, but of violating federal law to enrich himself at the expense of the people who trusted him."
A spokeswoman for Ryan's office didn't return a telephone call placed late Friday.
Harold Rosenthal, Tehin's lawyer, conceded Tehin grossly mismanaged his clients' money and caused a lot of suffering for his former clients and others. But Rosenthal said Tehin's conduct was not criminal.
"This was harmful, this was bad and it is something that he is ashamed of," Rosenthal said. "But it's not a mail fraud. It's not the crimes that they have charged."
Rosenthal said Tehin was a talented attorney who failed miserably with handling success and allowed his law practice's finances to spiral out of control.
"This a cautionary tale on how to deal with money and talent," Rosenthal said. "It's a cautionary tale on how one must be careful when you go from being a very poor immigrant to a person who is dealing with sums of money which were incomprehensible to his parents."
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Tehin began his alleged fraud in 2001 when he took about $1.3 million owed to dozens of low-income tenants he represented in Napa and squandered it on personal and professional expenses. The clients, many of them migrant farmworkers from Mexico, had sued their landlord for failing to keep rental units habitable. Public interest lawyers enlisted Tehin to win the landmark settlement.
"He put my organization in a dire situation," said Roy Chernus, executive director of Legal Aid of the North Bay, which retained Tehin in the housing case. Chernus is scheduled to testify against Tehin this week.
Chernus said his small staff spent an inordinate amount of time chasing after Tehin, who ultimately paid most of the Napa tenants. But prosecutors allege that to pay them, Tehin pilfered from at least three malpractice settlements -- including cases involving a baby born with severe brain damage, two children born with cystic fibrosis and a girl who died while under a medical supervision.
In those cases, the alleged victims told FBI agents that Tehin either never reported receiving a settlement check, stalled when they pressed for payment or tried to short change them by charging for fictitious expert witnesses.