PHOENIX – A man who passed himself off as a lawyer while operating a Phoenix office called "Divorce with Dignity" has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
Gary Karpin was convicted of 23 counts of theft and one fraud count last month and sentenced on Friday. The 57-year-old was a prosecutor and defense attorney in Vermont before being disbarred in that state in 1993.
He set up his Phoenix office in 1996 to provide mediation and legal document preparation. But he led his clients to believe that he was part of a law firm with several attorneys and he displayed his law degree.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office says he billed nearly $300,000 to 25 victims while posing as an attorney between April 2000 and December 2004.
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