Here is the story of a convicted ex-accountant who is selling a legal type service to inmates.  Now, he has problems.  Problem one:  he’s not an attorney, and authorities are determining whether he gave legal advice.  Problem two: a group of angry inmates and their families. They are paying big fees for his service to make a motion seeking dismissal and release, all based on a purported jurisdictional glitch back in the Truman era.

"A small Austin company, International Legal Services, advertises that it can free just about any federal prison inmate on appeal, even those who pleaded guilty or confessed — a dubious claim that even the most prestigious law firms would never make.

The key is supposed to be a legal argument, developed by employee Tony Davis, that claims the federal criminal code is invalid because Congress botched key legislation during the Truman administration. As a result, most criminal convictions obtained in the past 59 years should be tossed out, Davis argues.

Davis, however, is not a lawyer. He’s a former accountant who served almost 51/2 years in prison for fraud and money laundering — details International Legal Services fails to disclose to its clients, including about 160 inmates who paid up to $17,500 each for the company’s services, potentially generating fees topping $1 million.

Nor does the company, which Davis said is owned by his wife, disclose that its ballyhooed legal argument has yet to free one inmate since Davis first used it to challenge his own 1998 conviction."