Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing nobody can deny, it’s that there have been several cases over the years wherein phony enterprises have been established to scam innocent individuals for thousands of dollars. This much has actually even been evidenced in Netflix’s ‘Bitconned,’ which not only chronicles the tale of Centra Tech’s Ray Trapani but also mentions Pope & Dunn’s founder John Lambert.
Who is John Lambart?
Although a native of Bristol, Tennessee, John was reportedly attending Campbell University in North Carolina when his beliefs, interests, and morals led him down a path no one could’ve seen coming. The truth is he co-founded Students for Trump in 2015, just to then open chapters on campuses across the nation despite not being affiliated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He thus gained a lot of public attention too, which combined with his fascination with the Aaron Korsh-created legal drama ‘Suits’ somehow led him to believe he could practice law in secret.
John actually launched Pope & Dunn in 2016 while claiming to be 40-something-year-old Eric Pope, a New York University School of Law graduate plus a renowned, experienced litigation attorney. According to his fake bio on the bogus law firm’s website, he was “sought after… [for] financial and corporate matters due to his ability to mitigate legal scenarios” and balance his clients’ interests. He then utilized platforms such as Upwork as well as Fiverr to attract active business, just to charge hundreds per hour for his services no matter the seriousness or desperation of his victims’ cases.
In the end, it turned out John had managed to pull several dozen clients and hence rake in roughly $50,000 in fees alone before having to close down shop following his arrest in 2018/2019. As per official records, he had defrauded consumers into believing he was attorney Eric Pope through web-based platforms for freelancing services, websites, emails, phone calls, and other means. Therefore, he was indicted on scam charges, only to eventually plead guilty to one count of conspiracy wire fraud on August 6, 2019 — he admitted he’d falsely led on legal advice consumers for personal gain.
Where is John Lambert Now?
Despite the fact John had pled guilty in 2019, he wasn’t sentenced until May 2021 owing to some legal delays as well as the COVID-19 pandemic — in the end, he received 13 months in federal prison. His lawyer asserted his actions were merely a result of “youthful exuberance [that] led him to believe he could create a fake persona and act like a TV character… [He genuinely thought he could pose as a lawyer] without significant risk, just as the character ‘Mike Ross’ in ‘Suits’ practiced law without a law degree or license and kept that secret without penalty.” But alas, the judge deemed him a “cold-blooded fraudster.”
As for John’s present whereabouts, from what we can tell through federal records, he was released from custody upon serving his time on March 15, 2022, and he has since preferred to remain well away from the limelight. In other words, we do not know much about this now 27-year-old’s personal or professional experiences these days; all we know is that he doesn’t support Donald Trump anymore, according to his legal defense team. So, since he was pursuing further studies when he was sentenced, we can only assume he’s doing his best to move on from the past at the moment, all the while staying on the right path.
Read More: Ray Trapani’s Family Unwaveringly Supports Him Even Now
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