A disbarred Brooklyn lawyer helped his ex-con pal fleece her friends out of half a million dollars, prosecutors said Thursday.
Gerald Douglas pretended to represent Helen Lurene Elias in a multimillion dollar lawsuit during meetings with five victims, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said.
The partners in crime convinced Elias’s friends to lend her $300,000 until her bogus legal settlement came in, prosecutors said.
Elias, 55, allegedly finagled a total of $544,000 out of 10 of her well-meaning buddies and promised to repay them double or triple what they gave her.
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| Gerald Douglas, 52, in Brooklyn Supreme Court. (Noah Goldberg/New York Daily News) |
When pressed by the victims about getting paid back, Elias and Douglas, 52, made up excuses and never refunded the people.
Elias was ordered held on $100,000 bail at her arraignment Monday,
Douglas pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday. Elias was ordered held on $100,000 bail at her arraignment Monday.
She spent more than a year in prison for a similar scam that she ran from 2010 to 2013, where she bilked 10 friends out of $300,000. In that case, she claimed she had to clear liens before collecting a multimillion dollar inheritance.
She was convicted of scheme to defraud and grand larceny.
Douglas was disbarred in 2019 for allegedly misappropriating his clients’ funds.
He was also charged earlier this year with stealing the down payment
for a house from an elderly woman in Brooklyn. That case is still
pending.
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