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Boston lawyer accused of screwing clients, own workers to help lease Mercedes, rent $11,000 downtown apartment

Amin

Wassem Amin, 31, faces arraignment tomorrow on a 26-count indictment that he defrauded two clients and a lawyer and intern he had working in his downtown law practice, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Amin used money from clients - and opened credit lines in his workers' names - to lease a Mercedes S-class sedan and help support a lifestyle that included a $10,819-a-month penthouse apartment on Canal Street, the DA's office alleges.

Amin, who put up his legal shingle in 2012, is formally charged with five counts of consumer-credit violations, four counts of larcenty over $250, three counts of witness intimidation, larceny over $250 by scheme, money laundering, attempted larceny, forgery by check, uttering, common law forgery, common law uttering and publishing a false statement of financial condition.

According to the DA's office, Amin:

Started a practice known as Amin Legal Group last year and lured a college acquaintance along with a law school intern to join the firm. According to prosecutors, Amin opened several lines of credit in the victims’ names without their knowledge or consent and used them to charge expenses totaling nearly $35,000. Amin allegedly threatened one victim by text message after learning that the victim had filed a complaint against him with the Board of Bar Overseers.

Amin is charged with embezzling nearly $50,000 from a client who was in the process of launching a business. The victim wired the funds to Amin with the expectation that they would be transferred into an account Amin claimed he had created in the name of the new company. Amin instead transferred the funds into his corporate accounts and used the majority of the money to pre-pay a lease for a Mercedes S-class sedan, prosecutors said. In response to the victim’s repeated demands for the return of the money, Amin wrote a check on an account that had been closed two months earlier.

Amin is also accused of charging expenses totaling $9,000 to the credit card of another client. The charges were not related to any legal services.

Additional indictments charge Amin for securing the lease for a $10,819/month Canal Street penthouse apartment by providing false information, then failing to pay rent; fraudulently inducing a classmate to co-sign a student loan during 2011; altering a paycheck from a former employer in an attempt to steal more than $22,000 from the company; and writing bad checks to defraud two banks.

The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers suspended his law license in June of this year.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Clearly made a mistake by working in the private sector.

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I want the status symbols of a successful and legitimate legal career right up front!

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Leasing an S Class Mercedes requires about $10k cash down payment and a $2300 monthly payment than you're living large!

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you can get a Merc for $90K cash. Just meet these two guys at the MBTA garage in Lynn.

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There is the Mercedes Benz C class the Sl Class the D class the B class the E Class the S Class and the low class

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a money pit.

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Even at U Hub, the liberal news media is afraid to call this what is really is - radical Islamic lifestyle fraud.

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Perhaps he couldn't get a loan at a reasonable rate.

"Allah has permitted trade (business) and has forbidden usury." (riba)'(Qur'an 2:275)

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Special on tin foil at Star Market this week, I see.

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In case this wasn't clear, my post was meant as sarcasm.

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Well, it wasn't funny.

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If your statements are misconstrued on a regular basis.

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Or buy it?

Title says buy, story says lease.

Either way, he's a dirtbag. I'd love to hear a followup on this sometime.

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Thanks for spotting that; fixed.

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His LinkedIn page still says he's got a law practice. He's probably been too busy to update it.

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Don't go by Linkedin. Go by Board of Bar Overseers website.

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The really outrageous part of this story is that he was paying over $10,000 a month to2 live on Canal Street. Why would anyone do such a thing?

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Ha ha, that's exactly what I clicked in here to say! At least get to the Waterfront or full service at the Mandarin.

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...but now that I read it again, he was not actually paying for the Canal Street apartment, that's just what it would cost to people who pay their bills.

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you couldn't pay me 10K a month to live there. imagine dealing with all those bruins and celtics fans?? no thanks.

- The Original SoBo Yuppie.

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his.....

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You'd think a lawyer would be smart enough to know how easily he would get caught for such brazen and clumsy scams. Receive money from a client and immediately embezzle it? Yeah, they won't figure that out anytime soon!

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