If you were to visit Svitlana Sangary’s website, you would learn she is a California civil attorney who is “committed to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.” You would also see that Svitlana is committed to frequently rubbing elbows with some of the most famous politicians and celebrities around including President Barack Obama, Bill and Hilary Clinton, George Clooney, Kim Kardashian, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Fox, and Charlize Theron, just to name a few.
But, it seems Svitlana’s commitments may not be all that compatible because she is currently facing a six-month suspension by the California State Bar for allegedly having herself Photoshopped into some of the pictures! As The Washington Post reports, “because these images appeared as ‘part of an advertisement and solicitation for future work,’ the State Bar Court’s decision notes, they constituted ‘false and deceptive’ advertising.” She was charged with four counts of misconduct including deceptive advertising and is facing the afore-mentioned six months of Bar suspension and possibly three years of probation.
The images were posted under the “Publicity” section of Svitlana’s website, and although the link has since been removed, you can still view them by clicking here.
In addition to condemning Svitlana’s actions in regards to the allegedly altered images, State Bar Court Judge Donald Miles also came down hard on her “contemptuous conduct” during the disciplinary proceedings, which he described, in part, this way:
Throughout the balance of the trial, Respondent refused to participate, other than stating that she wanted a continuance and was not prepared to try the case. When called as a witness by the State Bar, she took the same position and declined even to take the witness’s oath until ordered to do so by this court. She then refused to answer any questions, claiming a First Amendment right to remain silent. This refusal continued despite this court’s instruction to her that, subject to her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer specific questions that were potentially incriminating, she had an obligation to cooperate with the disciplinary proceeding…
Svitlana eventually filed a lengthy response to Judge Miles’ decision in what he described as “a 16-page soliloquy with little or no rational connection to the charges at hand.” Here is part of her response:
There is a popular expression, ‘sweet sixteen’. The foregoing 16 pages can be characterized as bitter-sweet sixteen, in SANGARY’s view. It goes without saying as to why they are bitter. Can one envision the acts in the civil arena, more unseemly than the ones described above? But what SANGARY views as sweet is that this country, the United States of America, is truly the land of opportunity, where anything and everything is possible. SVITLANA SANGARY came to this country in her twenties with nothing, and married another immigrant, who also had nothing. SANGARY passed LSAT [sic] without taking the preparation course, graduated cumlaude from the Pepperdine University School of Law, and passed the bar without even taking the Barbri course. SANGARY’s American dream has come true, as she has been able to achieve a point wherein now, in her thirties, SANGARY is a prominent donor and philanthropist, supporting important social causes, who had recently received the email from President Obama, with the subject line ‘I need you help today’, asking SVITLANA SANGARY for an additional donation. Please see Exhibit 30.
God Bless America!
Svitlana also recently created a Facebook page to voice her opinion on the charges. She directly addresses the accusations by saying:
The original photos can be provided to experts either in Photoshop or any photo editor apps, then see the result!
To whom it may interest “every digital photo contains a wealth of hidden information, you can check whether a photo has been modified or not and see embedded metadata that could contain private details, the photos can be uploaded from your PC or directly linked from a URL, there is an optional Firefox browser plugin to make image forensic analysis easier, any image that can be displayed on your browser can be analyzed. For more info you can do some googling also check it out: http://imageedited.com/ andhttp://fotoforensics.com/
To corroborate her story, she posted this picture of herself with Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby Maguire which, to me, looks totally legit:
Svitlana also goes on to defend herself by saying, “It is possible to be born with no money, no social connections, no nothing, and achieve the point in your life when you meet successful and talented people you’ve always admired.”
UPDATE – We decided to take Svitlana up on her challenge and it turned out to be quite easy to prove at least one of the photos featured on her website was Photoshopped. Here’s the image – my apologies for the quality, but Svitlana cleverly only put up very small images:
I figured a photo with Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Nick Cannon wouldn’t be hard to find, and I was right. Click here to see the original which proves Svitlana simply Photoshopped her face over that of Nicky Hilton. Strangely, her necklace was also added, the same necklace that seems to appear in a lot of her photos. Perhaps she did that as a preliminary Photoshop-denying maneuver?
I figured I would get on board early with what is sure to become an internet meme and create my own Svitlana Sangary celebrity photo — one that I seriously doubt could ever be topped:
God bless America indeed!
