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MANHATTAN---A Montana man has pleaded guilty to charges of scheming to defraud parties involved in various high profile lawsuits by claiming to have incriminating evidence, including evidence of illegal activity by opposing counsel and opposing parties.
Michael Lair, 46, of Bozeman, Montana, president of consumerdefense.com, Inc. purported to investigate consumer complaints and conduct research in connection with large fraud cases.
When sentenced, Lair faces a maximum penalty of 80 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
According to the information, Lair's guilty plea, and other court documents,
Lair's scheme lasted from approximately February 2003through 2006, during which time he falsely represented to counselor parties in litigation matters that he had information concerning highly publicized lawsuits. In exchange for cash payments, Lair promised to provide information of illegal activity relevant to the litigation. Ultimately, Lair could not deliver on these promises because he did not actually have the information he claimed to have. As Lair failed to deliver on his promises, the parties originally targeted by LAIR ended their relationship with him. In total, those lawyers and their clients were defrauded out of over $300,000 by Lair.
Moreover, in two instances, after defrauding one party in a litigation, Lair then approached opposing counsel with the claim that counsel for the first party had hired LAIR and asked Lair to take illegal or unethical investigative steps. Lair asserted that the illegal or unethical investigative techniques employed by these attorneys included illegally hacking into computers, fraudulently obtaining financial records of potential witnesses, and use of "pretexting" to obtain individual's telephone records. In one instance, LAIR stated that he wouldnot release evidence of these requests by opposing counsel unless he was paid $50,000.
Lair also provided a forged email, which purported to be from opposing counsel asking Lair to engage in illegal investigative techniques, to support his claims in the hopes of receiving the $50,000 payment. 2-21-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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