True lies, or possibly lies lies.
A person has emailed a law firm claiming that one of its female lawyers stripped off and tried to make him fondle her as part of an attempt to win his business.
The firm, an immigration specialist, has rejected the individual's outlandish allegations.
The complainant called himself Oleg and claimed that 'Ms D' (ROF is not identifying her or her firm) offered to take him on as a client.
“I met with [Ms D] around two weeks ago for informal discussion about immigration potentialities for family members”, claimed Oleg in his email to the firm, which copied in partners, the head of Ms D's team and even a trainee.
He alleged that Ms D had sought to secure his instruction to obtain UK visas for his brother’s family in Ukraine, and that she offered to fast track the process if she was given "the right kind of incentive", namely extra cash.
Then, for reasons which are not entirely clear, she “accompanied me to my accommodation”, said Oleg.
“At this point I understood that this was not a good idea and told her that she should leave and that I would take this case of mine to another firm", he said.
Instead of leaving, Ms D “removed most of her clothing and tried to put my hand on her genitals”, alleged Oleg.
"I then told her to leave instantly and she angrily stormed out, saying I would hear from her again to work out how much I owed for her ‘wasted time’”, he said.
Oleg told the firm to report Ms D to the SRA and keep her away from him “as I do not want further problem”.
Oleg maintained in email correspondence with ROF that he was not a troll, but a 51-year-old Deliveroo driver who had moved to England in 2015 after Russia annexed Crimea.
Oleg said that friends recommended Ms D's firm as it had been helping Ukrainians with visa applications. But that after his distressing experience his brother’s family had ended up going to Poland instead.
Oleg told ROF he was unable to provide proof of his identity as he needed to stay off the grid to keep his family safe. "I am sorry but I don't have social media or Linkedin. It can be dangerous to make posts on social media when you are Ukrainian living abroad because if you say anything about war with Russia sometimes extended family can become target", he said.
He did not respond when asked to provide other evidence of his identity.
Ms D's firm rejected Oleg's claim. It told ROF it once had a client with the same name as Oleg, but that he told the firm he had never met Ms D nor made a complaint, and didn't own the email address from which the complaint originated.
“The complaint is a fake”, said the firm.
When presented with the firm's dismissal of his complaint, ‘Oleg‘ told ROF, “I am not sure why this firm is saying I am not the real Oleg”, and signed off his email, “(THE REAL!) Oleg”.
In a further twist, an anonymous person claiming to be a friend of Oleg then got in touch to express dismay at ROF’s scepticism.
"I spoke to Oleg on the phone a couple of weeks ago and I am about 95% sure he's legitimate as a person", said the friend.
Attempts to smear lawyers are not unknown. Last year a senior partner at legacy BLM was subjected to false allegations they were aligned with the IRA, and a fraudster mounted a campaign of lies against a London lawyer in an attempt to destroy his reputation.
In 2021 a person allegedly targeted at least eight female professionals including a lawyer as part of a harassment campaign.
Comments
15
10
I'm 95% a person too.
The other 5% is not me sending an anonymous email from another account pretending to corroborate my lies.
19
5
Unfortunately false allegations are very common when it comes to allegations of sexual misconduct.
21
7
Systems malfunction. Package does not compute. A fatal exception has occurred. Please run system.boot.rin to reset this unit to factory settings.
18
6
"A person has emailed a law firm claiming that one of its female lawyers stripped off and tried to make him fondle her as part of an attempt to win his business."
Are we sure that RoF can't name the firm?
It suddenly occurs to me that I've got loads of legal work I need to send someones way.
20
11
I want to treat allegations as facts with no evidence, but only where males are accused. I'm stuck, completely lost for words.
27
6
False allegations of sexual misconduct are very uncommon.
18
8
Isn't using the word "falsely" in the headline a tad problematic here? I see no evidence of proof or disproof. "Outlandish allegations" is fine, but not sure you can go as far as "falsely" just because someone didn't provide proof of identity...
17
7
Please name the firm. I am urgently looking for a UK visa and I need an immigration advisor I feel 'comfortable' with ;)
21
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11.04: the firm has said the allegations are false. On the record.
Please also note: you can stop submitting comments identifying the lawyer and her firm. We won’t be approving them.
19
7
Should we not stand in solidarity with Oleg? An allegation of sexual misconduct is a serious matter
15
11
@11.02 - this is proof that they're not uncommon.
21
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@Jamie: I would probably go on the record saying the allegations were false too if that's all that's required to keep my firm's name out of the legal press.
18
11
@Believe Men - that all depends on the gender of the person making the allegation!
21
5
It’s not all that’s required, but also it tends to backfire for regulated entities if such allegations subsequently turn out to be true, 11:18…
21
5
I would absolutely love it if Oleg provides proof of identity now
19
6
@Jamie at 11:22, that's a fair point but did the firm have any basis for saying it was false? I.e. full complaints handling process completed, invited the complainer to provide further info etc.
17
5
Probably untrue, but if not, Oleg is a right bore
20
7
Agree with 11:04, I don't think you can say "falsely" in the title, its still allegedly at this moment in time
13
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Chances of this article being written with this level of skepticism if the accused was a male? 0%. Believe it or not, it can be embarrassing for a male to reveal he's been a victim of sexual misconduct by a female
15
7
Claims she showed a bit of oleg to Oleg, does he?
20
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I'm Oleg - at least I am 95% sure I am.
17
6
I have no need of a lawyer. I put my own hand on my genitals whenever I want.
17
6
So because he didn't prove his identity this simply didn't happen? I thought you needed a concrete basis before you can start stating 'facts'
17
10
Oleg raging in these comments
17
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@Jamie Hamilton.
Alright fine. If you're not going to let people reveal who this story is about, can you at least just tell us if they are fit or not? That way we, the People, can know whether to treat this story as mildly titillating or as sordid and condemnable. At the moment it's not sufficiently clear.
15
8
Its interesting that we hate sex pests (but only when they are male) and we also hate false allegations (but only when they are made by males)
22
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Ms D is one lucky, lucky woman. If she were a Premier League footballer, she'd be done for right now
17
11
One does wonder if 'falsely' would have been used in a headline had the accuser been female and on the basis that the firm denied the accusation. One also wonders if the firm would have denied the accusation so quickly had the accuser been female. That isn't to say the allegation is true (many of these types of allegations are not, and males are no more or less likely to make up allegations than females), but it does show how framing of language and propensity to believe/deny vary with gender.
17
6
51 year old Deliveroo driver, fled his homeland which is now a war-torn country, family separated and scattered across Europe, and now... the subject of a sex scandal plastered across the pages of RoF.
When is the book being released?
15
7
If the firm would actually go "on the record" and reveal itself, it would at least demonstrate a more genuine stance. Going partially on the record but remaining anonymous to the public is not a great indicator of reliability.
16
6
I thought you anti-woke warriors were all in for biological reality? The reason this is far more likely to be bullsh*t than if the sexes were reversed is the same reason men are overwhelmingly more likely to commit sexual assaults on women, than the other way around. Ie: a female lawyer doing this sort of thing would be incredibly rare.
Taste test: how likely is it a female lawyer took an old Ukrainian bloke to her flat after a business meeting and then tried to make him fondle her? Versus: how likely is it a jilted ex boyfriend decided to smear her?
17
9
Question. Jamie, will you write another article if Oleg identifies himself to you?
18
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@12.22 - about as likely as it is to be a jilted ex girlfriend when a female is making allegations. It would be incredibly rare for either a male or female lawyer to do this sort of thing. We need to look at evidence when judging allegations, not the gender of the accuser.
17
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I for one am disgusted by rollonfriday's bias towards women and lawyers.
18
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This sort of thing happens a lot.
I've seen in on loads of documentaries on Pornhub and XVideos.
Disgusting.
20
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... and another thing, what if Mrs Not-Oleg was a trans-woman, eh?
Would RoF be saying it was all 'alleged' and spurious then? Or would we be getting a far more sympathetic account of how Oleg had his hand steered towards her throbbing appendage and barely escaped with his life after she forced her way into his toilet cubicle but why would she be in the Gents with him anyway because she's a woman and so she wouldn't be in there because that's not the bathroom that God would want her to use and maybe people should finally start putting urinals into the Womens toilets already it's 2023 and it's high-time we stopped building Womens bathrooms specifically to exclude trans-women and hang on that's my voice not RoF's it would probably have stopped shortly after the bit about the oversized appendage so I'm going to leave it there now but you get what I'm saying about the urinals thing.
A conspicuous silence on that front, don't you think?
17
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@12:22 - this would be really sound logic if it weren't for the millions of female sex workers and porn stars of the world.
Unfortunately, as sad as it is, offering up sexual favors in exchange for a buck or two is nothing new.
Neither is a woman with a bit of wild sexual lifestyle, just ask my wife and her sister!
17
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Ms D
Who art thee
Can I have a consultation for free?
19
6
I have printed out this article and added it to the Mills and Boon shelf.
18
7
Was there consent though? Why is nobody asking this question?
22
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Oleg, stay strong. You've got 99 problems but Ms D ain't one.
21
6
I am sick of this anti-Ukrainian tripe. Let's be honest, if we weren't talking about an "Oleg", but instead, a "Charles" or a "Richard", would we still be as sceptical?
16
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"Neither is a woman with a bit of wild sexual lifestyle, just ask my wife and her sister!"
This has aroused my interest, do you have a newsletter that I might subscribe to?
17
8
Unlikely a female accuser would be put in a position where they'd have to maintain that they were not a troll.
16
7
I detect some Eastern European phobia on here. Shame on you.
17
4
...but it'll never stand up in court.