Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Kickback Case (FOB William Lerach)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — William Lerach, a former partner at a prestigious New York law firm, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy for his role in a scheme to bribe people to become plaintiffs in lucrative class-action lawsuits.

Asked by U.S. District Judge John Walter how he would plead to the charge, Lerach answered, "Guilty, your honor."

Lerach, 61, pleaded to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

The plea deal also calls for him to forfeit $7.75 million to the government and accept a sentence of one to two years in prison.

After the hearing, Lerach shook hands with the three federal prosecutors who have been leading the investigation of his former law firm, now known as Milberg Weiss.

Prosecutors said the firm previously known as Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman paid $11.3 million in kickbacks in lawsuits targeting huge companies such as AT&T, Lucent, WorldCom, Microsoft and Prudential Insurance.

The alleged enlisting of plaintiffs allowed Milberg Weiss attorneys to be among the first to file litigation and secure the lucrative position as lead plaintiffs' counsel.

The seven-year federal investigation has resulted in charges against several former partners and lawyers at the firm.

The firm also has been charged in the case and pleaded not guilty to one count each of conspiracy, mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice in a revised indictment.

Firm co-founder Melvyn Weiss has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy and one count each of obstruction of justice and making false statements.

If convicted of all four counts, he could face up to 40 years in prison. He remains free after posting a $1.5 million bond.

Weiss and top lawyers dominated the industry in securities class-action lawsuits, which involve shareholders who claim they suffered losses because executives misled them about a company's financial condition.

Lerach previously acknowledged making secret payments to physician Steven G. Cooperman, and that other plaintiffs received payments — generally 10 percent of the attorneys' fees — from other Milberg Weiss partners, according to the plea agreement.

Cooperman pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge for his role as a plaintiff in the alleged kickback scheme.

When he formed his own firm in San Diego, Lerach took much of the Milberg Weiss securities litigation with him, including shareholder suits against Enron Corp.

Lerach resigned last month from the firm now known as Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins. The plea agreement shields that firm from being charged in the Milberg Weiss case.

Lerach made a lot of money using ~~extortion~~ class-action lawsuites against "deep-pockets" companies, acually at the expense of shareholders who already had been victimized and penalized by the dropped value of their stock holdings in the market.

Some of the money he made have found its way into Clintons' campaigns.

Awesome. I would say half the lawyers in the country deserve to follow this piece of s**t into the stony lonesome.

-ccm

2 posted on 10/30/2007 11:14:36 PM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)

Excellent! This gives me some hope that the Bush Justice Department is doing what it’s supposed to do.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.