‘Fake lawyer’ heading to real prison after guilty verdict

Kenneth Frank tricked people into thinking he was a lawyer so he could bilk them out of thousands of dollars for services he was not legally allowed to provide, a jury has decided.

The verdict came late Wednesday after a day and a half of deliberations. Frank was found guilty of 16 out of 18 counts and faces a recommended 11 years in prison or, though it’s unlikely, a maximum of nearly 100 years.

Defense lawyers portrayed Frank as a businessman who never claimed to be an attorney, betrayed in one case by a would-be business partner and in others by clients and lawyers protecting themselves from misconduct accusations.

The jury found him not guilty of two grand theft counts, and two other charges were dismissed by Broward Circuit Judge Barbara Duffy during the trial.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed that not all of Frank’s clients believed he was a lawyer. Some testified during his weeklong trial that they knew he was not an attorney, but they also signed legal documents that he drafted, following his advice. One client said he and Frank filed a lien against the buyer of the client’s foreclosed home in a bid to stall his eventual eviction.

“He broke the law by practicing law. He broke the law by taking the money from his clients for it,” said prosecutor Justin McCormack.

The charges against Frank included the accusation that he negotiated a commercial lease for a property he did not own, accepting $5,000 from the tenant in two payments, one of which he deposited in the account of a business he owned. The owner said he didn’t learn about the deal until the tenant started to move in. He said Frank did not have his permission to negotiate the deal.

Frank never deposited the tenant’s second check, and he quickly provided a refund for the check he deposited.

But that doesn’t negate the fact that he took the money in the first place, McCormack said. And if he believed he was legally entitled to the money, he would not have returned it so quickly, the prosecutor said.

Defense lawyer Lien LaFargue said the crime made no sense — Frank would have known there was no way he could keep the money if he didn’t have the right to negotiate the lease, she said. She explained that the property owner had second thoughts about entering into a partnership with Frank, so he feigned surprise when he learned about the lease agreement. It was only when the owner backed out that Frank returned the tenant’s money, she said.

Addressing other charges, she said one client turned on Frank after losing a related $1 million lawsuit — a conviction would show she was a victim and give her an argument to dismiss the judgment against her, LaFargue said.

McCormack stressed that regardless of what the clients believed about his credentials, Frank was still doing legal work without a license to practice law.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 27.

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