F

An alleged embezzler out of Brooklyn, New York was taken into custody in the Dandridge area by Jefferson County Deputy Josep Reiber.

Reiber was contacted in April by New York authorities who believed that a former Brookly Paralegel named Steven Cher – aka Vladislav Cherednichenko – was in the ara.

Following a brief search of the area Cher was taken into custody inside a residence on Privet Drive without incident.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Cher is accused of embezzling more than $400,000 from the law firm where he worked.

The defendant allegedly stole from the firm’s Interest On Lawyer Account fund, which contained settlement money belonging to firm clients, and then used the money to pay personal expenses, including credit card bills.

“This defendant allegedly violated the trust of his firm’s clients by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars to which he was not entitled,” Gonzalez said. “Criminal misconduct cannot be tolerated in the legal profession, and we are committed to holding this defendant accountable for his alleged fraud. I thank the U.S. Department of Homeland Securities Investigations for their assistance with the case.”

The District Attorney said Cher,48, recently of Leander, Texas, was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment in which he is charged with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree money laundering, first-degree identity theft, and thirty-two counts of first-degree falsifying business records.

The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, from 2015 to 2018, the defendant worked as a paralegal at the Law Office of Yuriy Prakhin where he assisted in handling settlement checks to clients.

It is alleged the defendant stole over $400,000 from the IOLA account.

He deposited approximately $288,611 of these funds into a bank account that he opened in the name of another person.

The defendant also allegedly diverted 16 checks worth $127,524 made out to clients of the firm into bank account in his own name.

Furthermore, it is alleged the defendant used the embezzled funds on travel and restaurants, as well as to pay his credit card bills.

The District Attorney thanked Reiber of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee for his assistance with the investigation.