‘100G fraud’ against fund biz

Litigation-financing firm LawCash’s eagerness to expand its operations in Florida led the company to get scammed out of nearly $100,000 by a woman employed by a Harley-riding lawyer, court papers claim.

The company says that a paralegal at a Fort Lauderdale law firm perpetrated an elaborate fraud by creating 19 phony clients who were purportedly injured in auto accidents and needed cash advances before filing suit.

Despite what it later admitted were “indicia of fraud,” LawCash mailed out 18 checks totaling $99,000 between August 2016 and September 2016, court papers say.

Patricia Sangineto, using the name Patricia Godinez, allegedly came up with the scheme after working at another firm that had been solicited for years by a LawCash salesman.

When Sangineto was hired by the International Law Firm of Gabriel Carrera — whose founder specializes in motorcycle-crash cases and bills himself as “the Attorney That Rides” — she allegedly contacted salesman Andy Fisher and said Carrera’s firm would let its clients use the funding company.

Carrera’s lawyer, Rob Saunooke, said his client “had no knowledge” of the alleged LawCash rip-off and “immediately fired” Sangineto once it came to light.

Sangineto is being prosecuted on fraud and related charges in two similar cases, according to the Broward County State Attorney’s Office.

Court papers allege that she and several accomplices stole more than $100,000 from two other settlementadvance companies, Oasis Legal Finance and Momentum Funding while she worked at other law firms.

Her defense lawyers didn’t return messages seeking comment.