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September 20, 2007
Class-Action Lawyers Indicted
by Tina Grazier
A seven year investigation has led to the indictment of a prominent New York law firm co-founder, attorney Melvin Weiss. Mr. Weiss is accused of conspiring to pay kickbacks to people who agreed to be plaintiffs in class-action suits against large corporations. The article at sfgate.com, “Lawyer indicted for conspiracy in class-action kickback scheme,” by Robert Jablon reports that the following companies were among those targeted:
AT&T, Lucent, WorldCom, Sears, Roebuck, Microsoft, Prudential Insurance and Lincoln Savings & Loan.
The law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman was also indicted for secretly paying millions to get people to take part in over 225 shareholder class-action suits. Several partners and lawyers in the firm have plead guilty to charges including a senior partner, Steve G. Schulman, who has agreed to plead guilty to a racheteering conspiracy charge. Quoted from the article:
"The indictment outlines a decades-long kickback scheme that was deliberately concealed from courts across the nation that were overseeing significant class-action cases," said George S. Cardona, acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. **** "The scheme furthered personal greed at the expense of the integrity of the courts and the interests of absent class members," he said.
If convicted of all counts, Weiss could get up to 40 years in federal prison. Schulman agreed in a plea deal to forfeit $1.85 million to the government and to pay a $250,000 fine.
Find the story at sfgate.com here:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/09/20/state/n142721D84.DTL&type=printable
Posted by Post Scripts at September 20, 2007 10:45 PM
Comments
One down, 100,000 left to go.
Posted by: Dan at September 21, 2007 08:39 AM
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Posted by: Tina at September 22, 2007 12:59 AM