ST. LOUIS (AP) - A southeast Missouri man faces federal fraud charges linked to what prosecutors say was his practicing of law even though he wasn't a licensed attorney.
A grand jury in St. Louis has indicted 50-year-old James Michael Arnold of Sikeston on five felony counts of mail fraud. He's also charged with three counts of failure to file tax returns and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Federal prosecutors say Arnold graduated from law school at the University of Missouri in Kansas City in 1992. But he never passed the Missouri Bar Examination and was never licensed to practice law in Missouri.
Authorities say that over a four-year span to January 2014, he defrauded more than $350,000 as an illegal attorney.
Online court records don't show whether he has an attorney.