A Tampa woman and Stetson University College of Law graduate has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for impersonating a lawyer after failing the bar exam twice.
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Roberta A. Guedes, who graduated in 2014 then failed the Florida Bar Exam on two occasions, plead guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in November of 2019 after it was found she attempted to fraudulently practice law as a licensed attorney.
Guedes went to great lengths to set up the infrastructure and incorporation of two take law firms — Ferguson and McKenzie LLC and Immigration and Litigation Law Office Inc. The incorporation documents for each firm include names of law school classmates and a roommate, listing one classmate as a lawyer in one of the offices. She even created websites with stock photos to represent fake partners of the firms.
Guedes appeared several times in federal immigration court in Orlando and Hillsborough County, posing as a licensed attorney. She charged her client-victims fees for services related to representation in immigration proceedings, family law, filing court pleadings and immigration petitions under the name and Florida Bar number of her former classmate.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing memo, “Guedes assumed the identity of a young and unestablished attorney.”
She further took advantage of her client-victims according to court documents. She used one victim’s Social Security number, birthday and other information to form corporations and open lines of credit and bank accounts for both personal and business-related expenses.
The sentencing memo describes Guedes’ actions as “inflicting chaos upon her fledgling practice and damaging her reputation. Guedes also manipulated and used her immigrant roommate, … stealing her personal information to open bank accounts and lines of credit for both Guedes’ personal use and that of her phony law firm.”
U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. of the Middle District of Florida imposed the sentence, noting an effort to discourage these type of acts by other law school graduates who have not passed the bar.
In addition to Guedes’ prison sentence, she is ordered to pay more than $14,000 in restitution and required to serve three years of supervised release while receiving mental health treatment.
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