?Vandelay! Say Vandelay!? This week in New York, a man has been accused of claiming to be an architect, while defrauding over 100 commercial and residential clients in the state of more than $200,000. In charging the defendant, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman displayed quite the sense of humor, dubbing the case ?Operation Vandelay Industries,? a reference to a fake company in the hit sitcom ?Seinfeld.?
According to a statement from the Attorney General?s office, Paul J. Newman, the ?fake architect? whose surname happens to be the name of series protagonist Jerry Seinfeld?s neighbor and occasional nuisance in the show, had, allegedly, for over seven years:
Pretended to be a registered architect, deceiving hundreds of New Yorkers?including families and senior citizens?with the sole goal of enriching himself. By allegedly falsifying building plans, code compliance inspections, and field reports, the defendant jeopardized the safety of those who resided in and frequented the buildings he was contracted to work on.
I'm indicting alleged fake architect Paul Newman on 58 counts as a result of our "Operation Vandelay Industries." pic.twitter.com/8cfn6zQIGk? Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) April 20, 2017

Although the charges against Newman are no laughing matter, sometimes life imitates art in absurd ways.
On one memorable episode of the sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld?s best friend, George Costanza, makes up the fictional Vandelay Industries, a latex c...