PROVIDENCE – A former Providence attorney pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Monday for fraudulently collecting $234,586 in pension funds in the name of a former Providence city employee who was a client of his for 12 years after said employee’s death.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island, Oleg Nikolyszyn, 65, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and one count of theft from an employee benefit pension fund, both of which are felonies.
Nikolyszen, who was suspended from practicing law in Rhode Island by the R.I. Supreme Court in 2016, admitted in federal court that he collected the monthly pension payments from December 2003 – approximately a month after the client died – through September 2015, the release states. He said he collected $173,597 in payment from the City of Providence Employee’s Retirement System and $60,989 from the Laborers’ International Union of North America Pension Fund in the name of his former client.
Nikolyszen, the release states, also admitted that he deposited the funds into a bank account in the name of both himself and his former client, and then used the funds for personal use.
Nikolyszyn will be sentenced April 24. He is facing up to 45 years in prison – up to 20 years per count of mail fraud and up to five years for theft from a pension fund – and fines.
