Legal Match is in Legal Trouble

May 30, 2004 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
Santa Ana, CA — The President of San Francisco-based LegalMatch.com was indicted today by a Federal Grand Jury in Santa Ana, CA for illegal business practices and lying to the FBI.

For more than four months, the FBI and the Secret Service have been investigating LegalMatch for company-wide business sabotage. The investigation stems from LegalMatch continually hacking into CasePost's system for the sole purpose of disrupting business. CasePost is a new company that competes with LegalMatch, but offers a wider variety of services at a lower cost to its member attorneys.

Dmitri Shubov, 31, of San Francisco, was named in an indictment that alleges three counts of unlawful access to store communications and one count of making false statements to the FBI. The indictment alleges that Shubov called CasePost's Voice Mail system and used an access code that allowed him to listen to messages, steal proprietary information and delete messages from CasePost's Voice Mail system.

Wes Fox, President and CEO of CasePost, said: "Despite LegalMatch's intent to harm our business, CasePost has continued to grow, posting over 140,000 cases for its member attorneys.' The 2-year-old firm has rapidly been gaining ground on LegalMatch. CasePost has 19 employees and 40 sales representatives nationwide. The company expects to have revenues of about $4.5 million this year.

Evidence indicates that LegalMatch's key employees knew of this illegal practice and several came forward to verify this business sabotage practice. Shubov will be summoned to appear for an arraignment in the coming weeks in United States District Court in Santa Ana, CA. Shubov allegedly made false statements to special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation earlier this year when he denied these allegations.

If he is convicted of all four counts in the indictment, Shubov faces a maximum possible penalty of 20 years imprisonment. An indictment contains allegations that one has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Contacts:
Assistant United States Attorney,
Andrew Stolper (714) 998-3536
Wes Fox, Casepost CEO (949) 442-8400
Email: press@casepost.com

This press release was issued through GroupWeb Emailwire.com. For more information on press release distribution, go to http://www.emailwire.com.