ORLANDO, Fla. -- An exclusive Problem Solvers investigation discovered that a Central Florida law firm -- operating without lawyers, and staffed, in part, by convicted drug dealers -- has been targeting families of federal prisoners.

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Problem Solvers Catch Con Man Operating Fake Law Firm

Local 6 News reported that Michael Nelson claims to be a lawyer working in Orlando, Fla., to reduce jail time for his clients and charging their families thousands of dollars for the service.

However, a Problem Solvers investigation found that Nelson is actually a convicted criminal still in the custody of U.S. Bureau of Prisons running a new con under the noses of federal authorities.

Nelson is actually serving the last three months of a 5-year sentence for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. But during an investigation, Problem Solver Tony Pipitone found that "Nelson plays the part of successful attorney he claims to be."

Nelson was filmed emerging from his firm's $30,000 Mercedes and into a plush leased office space of Townes, Boyd and Partners.

Local 6 News found that Townes, Boyd and Partners is not a law firm. And, when Nelson leaves his office every night, he returns to the watchful eye of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Pipitone tried to question Nelson at a Maitland, Fla., office building last month.

Pipitone asked, " You're not a lawyer, are you sir?" "Why do you claim a law degree."

Nelson denied comment.

However, after the question, Nelson's personal security guard was filmed accosting Pipitone and even firing up his stun gun "to make sure we got the message."

After further investigation, Pipitone found that half of the names on the Townes, Boyd letterhead are really fakes.

The list includes: Dora Boyd, his deceased grandmother, Betty Nelson, his mother, Naomi Boyd, his step grandmother, a drug dealer still doing four years in federal prison, Rex Dison and a convicted criminal released in July from a three-year term for cocaine distribution, Porfirio Cardona.

Pipitone reported that the sole corporate officer of Townes, Boyd is Nelson's mother who also claims that Cardona and her son are lawyers.

"They're not," Pipitone reported.

Nelson's so-called law firm has sought hundreds of thousands of dollars from convicted drug dealers or their families -- people desperate for lawyers to help reduce sentences, according to the report.

The report featured alleged victim Natalia Larruscain who said, "it's really hard because that was the last hope I had."

Her fiance, Kevin Davis is serving 12 years for cocaine dealing.

"He told you he was a lawyer?" Pipitone asked.

"Yes he did," she replied.

"And what did he tell you he was going to do?" Pipitone asked.

"He said he would help my husband to come home," Larruscain said. "He said he would probably be able to reduce it down to six."

Larruscain's bill from the Townes, Boyd firm says it's working on a downward departure or a reduction in her fiance's 12-year sentence for a fee of $1,500.

She now assumes the 200 she already paid is wasted.

"Why does he do it to me?," she asked Tony Pipitone. "I hadn't done nothing to him?"

Piptione found that she is not alone.

While still in custody of the Bureau of Prisons, Nelson has received or solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a quarter-million dollars from a veteran professional basketball player.

Local 6 News has learned that the player has been identified in court as a subject in a federal drug investigation.

Within two hours of Local 6 News questioning the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Atlanta about what the investigation uncovered, Michael Nelson was snatched off the streets by U.S. marshals and booked into maximum security among other federal prisoners at the Seminole County Jail.

Nelson remains in jail while the Bureau of Prisons monitors the Local 6 News reports and investigates on its own how a prisoner could do all this while still in federal custody.