An assistant public defender in Illinois has been fired after her boss discovered she is not an attorney, reports the Belleville News-Democrat.

Kelcie Miller was hired in October and had worked for the Madison County public defender’s office until last week, when her boss, John Rekowski, fired her.

“Rekowski said during the news conference he found out that Miller was not an attorney after a judge had checked the state’s Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission database of registered lawyers because a court reporter had asked the judge how to spell Miller’s first name. She was not listed,” write the News-Democrat‘s Lexi Cortes and Mike Koziatek.

Read the News-Democrat article.

The Miami Herald reports that a federal judge ordered top Carnival Corporation executives, including chairman Micky Arison and president Arnold Donald, to appear in court on June 3 because the company is charged with violating its probation.

“Federal prosecutors announced last week that they had reached a deal with Carnival Corp. on the charges, which include dumping plastic into Bahamian waters and falsifying records. At the June 3 hearing, Judge Patricia Seitz will review the deal, and she wants Carnival Corp.’s C-suite to be there,” explains the Herald‘s Taylor Dolven.

The world’s largest cruise company was put on probation for its 2016 conviction for environmental crimes on its Princess Cruises ships. Carnival paid $40 million as part of its guilty plea and began its five-year probation in April 2017. It was Carnival Corp.’s third conviction for the same crime of dumping oily waste into the ocean since 1998.

Read the Miami Herald report.

Bloomberg Law reports that the former co-chairman of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP pleaded guilty to conspiracy and faces the possibility of going to prison after admitting he bribed a consultant with $75,000 to have him rig his daughter’s college board scores.

Gordon Caplan is one of the highest-profile parents ensnared in a national college-admissions cheating scandal, according to Bloomberg’s Patricia Hurtado and Janelle Lawrence. “He admitted May 21 he conspired with William Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the scam, and funneled the payment through a charity that Singer ran.”

Prosecutors have said they’ll recommend that Caplan a term as low as eight months in prison and pay a fine of $40,000 on the charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest-services mail fraud.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

A law firm in Washington, D.C., and a law office in Wellesley, Massachusetts, are among the victims of malware attacks by an overseas cybercrime network, according to an ABA Journal report.

A Department of Justice press release announced the dismantling of the cybercrime network in an international law enforcement operation. The release did not identify the law firm or law office, other than to reveal their locations.

“The operation was highlighted by the unprecedented initiation of criminal prosecutions against members of the network in four different countries as a result of cooperation between the United States, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Germany, Bulgaria, Europol and Eurojust,” the press release states.

Read the ABA Journal report.

First NBC Bank’s former top lawyer was charged in federal court with conspiracy to defraud the New Orleans bank, which failed two years ago in the biggest U.S. bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis, reports The New Orleans Advocate.

“Gregory St. Angelo served as First NBC’s general counsel for a decade until 2016, and during that time, he took out loans totaling tens of millions of dollars from the bank, many of which went into default,” according to the Advocate‘s Tony McAuley.

Prosecutors alleged that St. Angelo and two other bank officers conspired to defraud the bank through various “false and fraudulent pretenses,” and that by the time of the bank’s collapse St. Angelo had obtained nearly $56 million in loans and other advances.

Read the Advocate article.

A Las Vegas lawyer was steadily swindled out of $1.5 million after authorities said she responded to a flyer for “Psychic Readings” she found on the door of her home, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

Three people are facing felony charges and the prospect of decades behind bars in what police have described as an elaborate, months-long scam that netted cash, jewels, airfare and a pair of white-on-white $130,000 BMWs.

The Review-Journal‘s David Ferrara tells the back story:

More than a year ago, Stacey Tokunaga, an attorney who runs a firm under her own name and focuses on workers compensation law in California and Nevada, called the number she found on the flyer for a tarot card reading, according to court papers. She was told “her chakras were off balance” and was quoted $1,500 for a “chakra clearing.”

Read the Review-Journal article.

A U.S. district court judge has ordered an imprisoned Atlanta lawyer to pay $40 million in restitution to former clients who were victims of his embezzling scheme.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Nat Hardwick is currently serving 15 years in a low-security federal prison in Kentucky.

On the same day U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross ordered him to pay the restitution, his attorney filed a motion challenging the order.

Read the Journal-Constitution article.

Texas prosecutors have dropped the lone felony charge against a Houston attorney from a prominent law firm who had been accused of abandoning injured colleagues after he crashed his boat into land on an Austin-area lake last year, reports the Austin American-Statesman.

The Statesman‘s Ryan Autullo gives the backstory:

Douglas E. McWilliams, a partner in the Vinson & Elkins’ mergers and acquisitions division, has said he told passengers he was leaving to get help for two women who had suffered serious injuries. But when McWilliams didn’t return and disappeared for almost five hours, authorities feared he might have been in the water and began a search that included 16 law enforcement officers and the use of an Austin police helicopter.

An investigator alleged that McWilliams, 49, had been seen drinking at a dinner party before the wreck and charged him with leaving the scene, but prosecutors never presented the case to a grand jury for a possible indictment and on Tuesday formally dismissed the charge.

Read the American-Statesman article.

A scammer targeting timeshare owners desperate to sell their properties stole the identity of a Florida lawyer to further his scheme, reports the ABA Journal.

The scammer would call people who had placed ads to sell their timeshares and tell them their property could be sold if they forwarded closing costs to the lawyer, David Eaton.

Eaton learned of the scam when the Florida Bar contacted him, according to a Tampa Bay Times article. The Bar told him that a woman had complained that  she sent money to someone who claimed to be David Eaton. The bar concluded that Eaton’s identity had been stolen and called Eaton as a courtesy to let him know.

Read the ABA Journal article.

NBC News reports that prosecutors in the solicitation of prostitution case against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft have accused two of his defense attorneys of lying.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office filed a motion Tuesday asking that attorneys Alex Spiro and William Burck be held in contempt, according to NBC’s Janelle Griffith and Xuan Thai.

Prosecutors claim that in court last week, Spiro falsely accused Jupiter police officer Scott Kimbark of telling other officers he would lie to justify the traffic stop of another customer of the day spa where Kraft was alleged to have committed an offense.

The defense lawyers denied the allegations of lying.

Read the NBC News article.

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Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer and fixer, is due to report to the Federal Correctional Institute in Otisville, New York, about 70 miles northwest of New York City, on Monday, reports Reuters.

“The 52-year-old Cohen will be housed in dorm-like accommodations at the facility’s minimum-security camp, which prison consultants say has become a destination for Jewish inmates due to its proximity to New York City’s Jewish and upstate New York’s Orthodox Jewish enclaves,” writes Reuters’ Brendan Pierson.

A prison handbook says the camp offers weights and other exercise equipment, a basketball court, a tennis area and a baseball field, and bocce ball.

A former inmate said Cohen “can pretty much do what he wants,” but guards “intimidate you a lot. They speak down to you a lot. It’s not a pleasant atmosphere.”

Read the Reuters article.

CNBC is reporting that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation in a matter relating to Ford Motor’s emissions certification process.

“The matter stems from issues related to road load estimations, including analytical modeling and physical track testing,” writes CNBC’s Amelia Lucas. “Road load is a vehicle-specific resistance level that helps determine fuel economy ratings and emissions certifications. It does not involve the use of defeat devices to cheat on emissions tests.”

The company said it voluntarily disclosed disclosed the issue to the Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 18 and has hired outside experts to investigate its vehicle fuel economy and testing procedures after employees raised concerns.

Read the CNBC article.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that federal prosecutors have requested records to determine if there was a financial relationship between a former Atlanta city attorney and the private law firm that guided the city’s response to numerous federal grand jury subpoenas.

The firm, Paul Hastings LLP, has earned millions over the past decade handling some of the city’s most sensitive matters for both former Mayor Kasim Reed and his successor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, according to the AJC’s Stephen Deere.

The review focuses on whether there were payments from the firm to Cathy Hampton, the city’s former top lawyer.

Read the Journal-Constitution article.

Anita Nicholson, in-house counsel at mining company Anglo American in Singapore, was killed along with her two children in an explosion at the Shangri La hotel in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, according to The Law Society Gazette.

Her husband Ben Nicholson, also a solicitor, survived the attack, one of at least seven terrorist attacks reported in churches and luxury hotels in the capital city of Colombo.

“Anita was a wonderful, perfect wife and a brilliant, loving and inspirational mother to our two wonderful children,” Ben Nicholson said in a statement.

The Law Society reported that Anita Jane Nicholson was admitted in 2000. Her LinkedIn profile states she was a regulatory and compliance managing counsel at Anglo American and previously held roles at BP and HM Treasury. She also had been a solicitor at international law firm DLA Piper in London.

Read the Gazette article.

A prosecutor in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, finds himself embroiled in a legal scorched earth conflict against his county commissioners — a fight that started when he used $21,000 in asset forfeiture funds to lease a car.

Above the Law traces the conflict between the commissioners and Lancaster District Attorney Craig Stedman.

Along the way, Stedman doubled down after commissioners said they would have leased him a vehicle through proper channels if he’d asked for one, but that using the forfeited funds to get a car on his own violated protocol, writes Above the Law senior editor Joe Patrice.

Stedman sued the commissioners, and they responded by blocking the use of county funds for the lawsuit. Stedman turned over documents, but the records didn’t include receipts documenting what specific seized items were sold and what items were bought with the proceeds.

Read the Above the Law article.

The U.S. Department of Justice has reported that a Tennessee man was charged for allegedly creating a fake website for a six-lawyer New York City law firm, so he could dupe people into paying him for legal services.

John Lambert, 23, was charged with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. Lambert allegedly held himself out as a lawyer using a website that cut and pasted lawyer biographies from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, according to a report by the ABA Journal.

The criminal complaint says that Lambert and a co-conspirator, non-lawyers who allegedly created a fake law firm, collected more than $50,000 in payments through a PayPal account.

Read the ABA Journal article.

Former law firm leader Gordon Caplan is set to plead guilty in the college admissions bribery scandal, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said Monday.

Yahoo, citing a story from ALM, reports that Caplan, the former Willkie Farr & Gallagher chairman, announced his intention to plead guilty last week.

In a copy of his plea deal posted online Monday, Caplan and the prosecutors agree that his guidelines offense level is 11, which translates to a recommended term of 8 to 14 months in prison for someone with no criminal history.

The government is recommending a term at the lower end of that range, but the court will consider other factors in the ultimate sentencing calculation. Prosecutors also agreed to recommend a year of supervised release and a $40,000 fine.

His former firm announced that Caplan “is no longer a partner of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.”

“Mr. Caplan’s departure is a result of his involvement in the college admissions matter and his recent statement regarding his intent to plead to a criminal charge,” the firm said.

Read the article on Yahoo.

SeaWorld Entertainment’s former associate general counsel, who was fired last October, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of insider trading that allowed him to make nearly $65,000 from a stock sale last year, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Paul B. Powers, 60, entered his plea before a U.S. district judge in Florida. Sentencing has not yet been determined, writes the Union-Tribune‘s Lori Weisberg.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that it had also charged Powers with insider trading based on confidential information he received that SeaWorld’s revenue would be better than anticipated for the second quarter of 2018.

Read the Union-Tribune article.

Fears Nachawati trial lawyer Matthew McCarley will be featured in an upcoming episode of the true crime show “In Ice Cold Blood,” detailing the murder-for-hire of a 69-year-old woman who was killed for her $5 million life insurance policies.

In 2014, Anita Fox was found fatally stabbed inside a Colleyville house where she worked as a housekeeper, according to a recent post by Androvett Legal Media & Marketing. Bernard “Little Joe” Gorman and his father, Bernard “Big Joe” Gorman, were arrested for the murder, with the police investigation uncovering a complex insurance fraud scheme involving Ms. Fox’s daughter and son-in-law, Virginia and Mark Buckland.

The investigation revealed that over the course of several years, the Bucklands had taken out a series of life insurance policies on Fox, naming themselves as sole beneficiaries. Following the recommendation of an insurance agent, the couple brought in the Gormans, members of a nomadic ethnic clan known as Irish Travellers, as third-party investors. Looking for immediate returns, the pair allegedly stalked and murdered Fox, who has been identified as a member of the English Travellers, another nomadic ethnic group, according to the Androvett post.

Represented by McCarley and Brice Burris of Fears Nachawati, Fox’s son and estate executor, Al Fox III, filed suit to prevent the Bucklands from profiting from the insurance policies. Though the couple has never been charged criminally in the murder, a jury in the 2018 civil case found that they were instrumental in crafting the insurance scheme that led to Fox’s death. Jurors awarded her son $166 million.

“Five years after her death, the scheme is still shocking in its sheer audacity,” said McCarley. “They have not faced criminal charges for their role in the murder, but the one thing that Mr. Fox can take comfort in is knowing that his sister and brother-in-law will never profit financially from his mother’s death.”

Hosted by actor and rapper Ice-T, “In Ice Cold Blood” is broadcast on the Oxygen Network. The episode “Gypsy Grandma” will premiere at 7 p.m. CDT April 8.

Bloomberg Law is reporting that a Northern California tax attorney was sentenced April 1 to three years in federal prison for stealing $1.2 million in refunds fraudulently obtained on behalf of his NFL player client.

Hiram M. Martin was charged with falsifying returns for Antrel Rolle, a former Pro Bowl NFL safety who played for the Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants, and Chicago Bears. Martin reportedly filed tax documents in Rolle’s name without his permission, and forged his client’s signature, writes Bloomberg’s David McAfee.

Prosecutors said Martin also worked to keep the IRS from contacting Rolle and to keep Rolle from contacting the IRS when a news story ran about the athlete’s tax liabilities.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.