One insurance attorney is facing suspension after posting doctored photos on her firm’s website that showed her with high profile celebrities such as President Obama, Kim Kardashian and George Clooney.
Svitlana Sangary had been ordered to remove the images after a California State Bar warning that they were false advertising; but when she failed to do so Judge Donald Miles issued an 18-page decision outlining her disregard of the disciplinary process and recommended a six-month suspension.
The ruling said because the “photographs were part of an advertisement and solicitation for future work... they were false, deceptive, and intended to confuse, deceive and mislead the public.”
The California Supreme Court will decide on the recommendation, reports the Daily Mail.
The California Bar Association is recommending two and a half years of probation after the six-month suspension.
The attorney, whose practice specializes in insurance, business, real estate, foreclosure, employment and personal injury litigation, denied the allegations saying she was photographed with “talented and successful people” at charity and political events.
But State Bar Court Judge Miles said the photos posted on Sangary’s law practice website “were created by taking original celebrity photos and then overlaying (Sangary’s) image in order to make it appear as though (Sangary) was in the presence of that celebrity.”
Included in Sangary’s bizarre response to the images she cites Natalie Portman’s performance in the movie Black Swan, referring to the allegations made at the time of the film’s release that Portman’s head was superimposed on to ballet dancer Sarah Lane’s body.
