Bill Lerach and John Edwards: BFFs?
As we mentioned in passing yesterday, infamous plaintiffs' lawyer William Learch will be pleading to a federal conspiracy charge, related to his involvement in Milberg Weiss's secret scheme to make payments to name plaintiffs in class-action cases. Under the deal that was so skillfully cut by Lerach's lawyer, John Keker of Keker & Van Nest, Lerach will cough up $8 million in forfeiture and fines and serve one to two years in federal prison.
Is Bill Lerach getting off easy? Quite possibly. But a judge still has to sign off on the deal.
Not surprisingly, Lerach spread his cash around liberally among several Democratic candidates for president. But his favorite was fellow plaintiffs' lawyer John Edwards. From Ben Smith over at Politico:
Edwards and Biden each gave away money from Lerach; no word yet on whether Hillary will give back the money he gave her 2006 Senate campaign.Edwards, though, is particularly tied to him. Though he's giving away the $4,600 from Lerach, Lerach is also listed as a bundler, and employees of the lawyer's firm are his third-largest group of donors, mostly giving in the first quarter.
If we had to choose between disgraced Democratic fundraisers, we'd pick Norman Hsu over Bill Lerach any day. That Hsu is so cute -- he looks like a Treasure Troll! And he didn't intend to skip out on court the other day. He was "sick and confused," you see, and "may have thought he was boarding a Bay Area Rapid Transit train when he instead caught an Amtrak train heading out of the state."
The Lerach Case [Politico]
Fortunes Darken for Lawyer Melvyn Weiss [New York Sun]
Bill Lerach Agrees to Plead Guilty [WSJ Law Blog]
Is Bill Lerach Getting Off Easy? [WSJ Law Blog]
Hsu Didn't Intend To Skip Court, Spokesman Says [CBS5.com]
Comments
El Primero Firsto.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 19, 2007 01:42 PM
Who careso if you are Secundo!!!
Posted by: First is for Pu$$ies | September 19, 2007 02:02 PM
Yeesh- a lot of people want him skewered. The whole thing is so BFD. The only thing Millberg Weiss or whoever they are nowadays is guilty of is calling out business on it shady practices.
Posted by: Not First | September 19, 2007 02:12 PM
racist
Posted by: anon | September 19, 2007 05:06 PM
Could be worse...they could be TFF
http://www.americanlegends.blogspot.com
Posted by: J. Mark English | September 19, 2007 07:08 PM
Question for a legal mind out there:
I was co-founder/VP of a formerly public company that was entirely destroyed by Lerach's unlawful actions. He finagled our tens of millions of dollars into his and buddy Steve Berman's pockets, leaving us (management/founders) penniless, driving stock to $0 and delisting. The actions to kill the company exactly match those he was recently convicting of doing with other companies. Had these two criminals not performed their greedy magic, I believe the company (management, founders, shareholders) would be doing well now.
Unfortunately, this was over 10 years ago. Since he was just convicted, can we successfully sue him for damages? Or is it beyond the statute of limitations so he gets to keep our money to play with when he gets out of jail (and Berman gets to play with now)?
Posted by: Another Victim | January 1, 2008 08:09 PM