Phony Attorneys Arrested After Bilking Homeowners

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CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami/AP) — Pretending to be a lawyer never seems to end well.

Authorities have arrested two men who pretended to be attorneys in Coral Springs and developed a client list of 300 homeowners on the verge of losing their homes to foreclosure, according to a news report.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel says that Joseph Anton Hilton, 56, and Adam Forman, 46, were arrested last week for practicing as unlicensed attorneys. Their company, The Asset Protection Law Firm, offered residential loan modifications and debt consolidation, according to the Florida Attorney General's Office.

Hilton, who went by the name of Joseph Starr, was being held on a $250,000 bond and Forman was being held on a $75,000 bond. Practicing law without a license is a third-degree felony.

The two men convinced homeowners to stop paying their mortgages and ignore notices because their law firm would be dealing with their banks on a "higher level," according to authorities.

In return, they deceived homeowners into paying high upfront monthly fees for legal services that were not supervised or approved by licensed attorneys, authorities said.

Hilton and Forman did hire real attorneys to work for their firm, mostly inexperienced lawyers they recruited off Craigslist. They used the information of the legitimate attorneys to delay foreclosure proceedings which allowed the duo to continue collecting fees from homeowners, authorities said.

Thirty-seven consumers filed formal complaints against Hilton and Forman because of their tactics when clients no longer wanted to continue with their services. The phony attorneys would harass and make threats against those wanting to end their business relationship with the law firm, authorities said.

In addition to the office in Coral Springs, Hilton and Forman also had offices in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach.

Authorities said others could be implicated in the elaborate scheme and that Hilton and Forman could face more charges.

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