FBI agents got complaints about imposter attorney Howard Kieffer four years before he tried a murder-for-hire case in Colorado, but the agency did not pursue criminal charges against him until 2008.
Kieffer is on trial in U.S. District Court in Denver on charges of wire fraud, making false statements and contempt of court. The case continues today in Judge Christine M. Arguello’s courtroom.
Kieffer has a record of fraud convictions and never attended law school and is not licensed to practice in any state.
In 2004, a former client reported Kieffer to Special Agent Dominic Anselmo in California and said Kieffer was not a real lawyer.
Anselmo testified Thursday that he called Kieffer to find out whether the allegations were true and Kieffer told the agent he was not licensed to practice law in California but did attend the Antioch School of Law.
Anselmo testified Kieffer also told him he only provided “administrative help” to the client and knew it was illegal to represent himself as an attorney.
In 2007, Special Agent David Carr was assigned to make an undercover call to Kieffer and posed as a client after the FBI was notified that Kieffer might be an imposter.
In the recorded phone call, Carr pretended to have a cousin in trouble and requested some information on Kieffer’s credentials.
Kieffer told the agent he had 25 years of experience and was admitted to practice in the federal court system and he did not practice in state courts.
The agents did not say why criminal charges were not pursued at that time.
Stephen Bergman believed in Kieffer when he handed him a $10,000 check to help his sister with her criminal case.
Bergman testified Kieffer advertised on a website touting his legal experience.
He needed help for his sister, Gwen Bergman, who was facing charges in Colorado of trying to hire a hit man to kill her son’s father.
Stephen Bergman met Kieffer at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., in an attorney conference room and made out the check. The money was just the first of several payments Bergman made that cost him and his mother $65,000.
“We got to a point where we didn’t have much money anymore,” Stephen Bergman said. “(Kieffer) suggested we place a lien on my mother’s home. He sent me the paperwork, but we decided not to do that. I took out a second mortgage on my home. She sold the remaining stocks that she had.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Holloway, who prosecuted Bergman, also believed Kieffer was an attorney.
“He examined witnesses, did direct examination, cross-examined, made objections and argued points of law,” Holloway said.
The Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., closed in 1988. The school is now Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Douglas Wamer, director of the school’s records, searched for Kieffer’s records for two months after Kieffer called the school to request them in 2006.
Wamer asked Kieffer to fax a copy of his diploma so he could verify it, but the diploma Kieffer sent did not match the diplomas handed out by the school in 1979, the year Kieffer claimed he graduated.
Kieffer’s defense lawyer, Nathan Chambers, contends no legal errors were made during the Bergman trial. Chambers told jurors licensing rules for attorneys vary in different states and federal jurisdictions and asked them not to decide the case until they heard the nuances of the rules.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
