(Phony?) sentencing expert convicted of fraud for impersonating lawyer

Many practitioners know the name Howard O. Kieffer from his federal sentencing work in a vareity of settings on a variety of issues.  But, as detailed in this AP article and this local piece, Kieffer now need to devote his expertise to his own upcoming sentencing after his federal conviction this week.  Here are the fascinating details:

A federal court jury has convicted a Duluth man on charges of mail fraud and false statements in impersonating a lawyer. A prosecutor says he hopes the case continues in other states. Authorities said Howard O. Kieffer, 54, represented clients in at least 10 states. North Dakota was the first to charge him.

The Bismarck jury of seven men and five women reached a verdict after about an hour and a half of deliberation Wednesday afternoon. Kieffer faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. U.S. District Judge Patrick Conmy did not immediately set a sentencing date but ordered Kieffer to remain on home confinement until sentencing....

“I hope there are other districts in this country that will pursue something,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hagler said immediately after the two-day trial. Hagler told jurors that Kieffer made his own rules and befriended reputable attorneys because “he needed to use them” to vouch for him in applying to practice law.

Kieffer’s attorney, Joshua Lowther, called no witnesses, but he said the government did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Kieffer did not testify at his trial.

Prosecutors called two witnesses Wednesday who said they paid Kieffer at least $20,000 to appeal prison sentences for their loved ones, only to find out later he was not an attorney.

Ken Henderson of Woodbury, Minn., testified he paid Kieffer $25,000 to file an appeal for his wife, Denise, after her conviction for lying to the government in a Social Security fraud case. Natasha Caron of Naples, Fla., said she paid Kieffer $20,000 for an appeal of her son’s drug conviction.

Neither appeal succeeded. Henderson said his wife found out in talking with other federal prisoners that Kieffer was not really an attorney. Caron said her daughter found out Kieffer was a phony by searching prison Web sites. She said her son’s conviction and Kieffer’s handling of the case caused her “health and emotional collapse.” “I put my son’s case in this man’s hands and he was not an attorney,” Caron testified....

Other attorneys testified earlier that they thought Kieffer was one of their colleagues because he seemed to know about federal court matters and because they saw him at attorney training seminars. Bismarck attorney Chad McCabe said he vouched for Kieffer on his application to practice law in North Dakota.

Cases Kieffer handled outside North Dakota include that of former St. Louis Blues player Michael Danton, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to plotting to kill his agent, and a Colorado woman who was convicted of soliciting the killing of her former husband.

Kieffer was charged in North Dakota last year after one of his clients, a man accused of child pornography, wrote to U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland in Bismarck, raising questions about whether Kieffer had ever been a licensed attorney.  Conmy had said Hovland would be among the trial witnesses but the judge did not testify.

Court records show Kieffer was convicted earlier of theft and filing false tax returns and served time in a federal prison from 1989 to 1992.

I would be eager to hear in the comments about what sort of sentencing readers think would be appropriate in this case.  Folks who knew Keiffer are especially encouraged to share their thoughts.

UPDATE:  TalkLeft has this post on the case, which includes a link to this long and effective article on Kieffer appealing in the April 2009 ABA Journal.