Accused Of Fleecing Elderly Client Out Of $200K+ In Unrelated Case, Lawyer Now Faces Criminal Charges For Allegedly Doctoring Court Documents Filed In Foreclosure Cases To Improperly Obtain Successful Outcomes In Defending Homeowners; Prosecutor: Defendant's Conduct Enabled Him To Pocket Over $100K In Prevailing Party Legal Fees From Foreclosing Lenders

In Central Florida, the Tampa Bay Times reports:

• First, Constantine "Chuck" Kalogianis was facing potential disbarment. Now, the well-known Pasco County attorney and onetime congressional candidate is battling criminal charges for allegedly doctoring foreclosure documents.
  
  Kalogianis, 53, was arrested [...] on nine felony counts: eight of them related to forgery and one count for a scheme to defraud.
  
  State Attorney Bernie McCabe charged that Kalogianis had engaged in a "systematic, ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud" multiple lenders between November of 2013 and March 16 of this year.
  
  McCabe, who represents Pinellas and Pasco counties, launched the investigation after a lender's accusations that Kalogianis was altering foreclosure case records to benefit homeowners he represented. Surveillance videos taken in a Pasco clerk's office last year appear to show him stamping something on papers in two different cases.
  
  An investigator with McCabe's office said he found probable cause to believe Kalogianis forged or altered documents attached to mortgages on eight properties in Pasco County. Due to the forgery, he said, Kalogianis was able to convince the Sixth Judicial Court in those cases that the lender didn't have standing for summary judgment.
  
  As a result, Kalogianis received more than $100,000 worth of fees as the prevailing attorney that he otherwise wouldn't have received, McCabe's office said.
  
  ***
  Separately, a judge in August recommended Kalogianis face disbarment for at least five years after not paying back a $227,644 investment a 73-year-old client made to him in 2007.
  
  In his report, the judge lambasted Kalogianis as "completely self-serving," "strategically evasive," and "drenched in deceitful motive."

For more, see Pasco attorney Constantine Kalogianis facing nine felony counts connected to foreclosure fraud.