Posted on 02/11/2008 7:40:40 PM PST by LdSentinal
William S. Lerach, who won billions of dollars for defrauded investors in class-action cases, was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison, ending up on the wrong end of the justice system after a legendary legal career.
The prominent California plaintiff lawyer recovered more than $7 billion for Enron shareholders before pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge last October. He will serve his time in a facility to be determined by prison officials.
The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter in Los Angeles yesterday was far higher than the six months in prison and six months' home detention that Lerach had sought. In selecting the maximum term, the judge decried as "breathtaking" the cash kickbacks that Lerach and others at his former law firm paid to plaintiffs in an effort to gain control of big lawsuits and win larger fees in 150 cases over 20 years.
The scheme "corrupted the law firm, and it corrupted it in the most evil way," the judge said.
Lerach, 61, continued yesterday to challenge the motivation of federal investigators, who had been trailing him for nearly a decade. In court, he apologized to his family and his former law partners. He shook hands with reporters as he left the building but declined to offer extensive public comments.
Lerach's success made him the nemesis of executives at troubled companies and his legal victories brought him tens of millions of dollars, which he shared with Democratic politicians. Presidential candidate John Edwards vowed last year to return thousands of dollars Lerach had contributed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Leach. Says it all.
Not what you’d call a day of mourning in Silicon Valley.
Corrupt lawyer? I’m deeply saddened.
I don’t know if “friend” is correct or not but this guy made an ambulace chaser like Edwards look like a rookie just out of law school.
“...He will serve his time in a facility to be determined by prison officials.”
Guaranteed he won’t be in a prison situation like Ramos and Campeon where he gets his butt kicked.
We’re all criminals now. One way or another.
Yep. No one gets it, though...
I've seen a "cushy" federal prison firsthand (though not as an inmate) and they are more like country clubs than you can imagine. Let's just say that the inmates at the prison I visited enjoyed a much nicer day-to-day life than most of us do on the outside.
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