A judge has put an end to the once-illustrious legal career of Raymond Ho, who became a partner at Arent Fox at the age of 33.

Above the Law reports on the sentencing of the one-time legal star  who the government referred to as a “prolific money launderer” who is alleged to have funneled $2.1 million through various accounts, including attorney trust accounts.

The sentencing memo summed up the case:

“After emigrating from Taiwan at a young age, he excelled in U.S. schools, earned two legal degrees, practiced law at some of the largest law firms in the country, and even opened his own patent law firm.

“The defendant, however, was not the upstart attorney his résumé would suggest. Rather, from at least March 2013 to February 2017, the defendant engaged in a large-scale money laundering scheme.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Michigan State University Trustee Brian Mosallam is calling for the resignation of Bob Noto, the school’s vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, reports The Detroit News.

The university issued two reports on the allegations of Nassar misconduct involving girls and young women he treated when he was a team physician.

Reporter Kim Kozlowski writes: “Both reports cleared Nassar, but the unabridged report that recently surfaced and was marked confidential showed that Nassar was a liability to the university and ‘is exposing patients to unnecessary trauma based on the possibility of perceived inappropriate sexual misconduct.'”

Read the Detroit News article.

Christopher K. Veatch has joined Perkins Coie’s White Collar & Investigations practice group as a partner in the Chicago office. Veatch joins the firm from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he was most recently Chief of the National Security & Cybercrimes Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

As Section Chief, Veatch led complex investigations of cyber, national security, fraud and financial crimes

Veatch joins the firm shortly after Perkins Coie’s recent hiring of two others from government positions: Adam Schuman in New York (former Special Counsel for Public Integrity in the New York State Governor’s Office) and Kevin Feldis in Anchorage (former First Assistant United States Attorney in Alaska).

“Perkins Coie is an industry leader with a deep national bench of white collar attorneys who provide strategic counsel to our clients in highly consequential matters,” said Markus Funk, Chair of Perkins Coie’s White Collar & Investigations practice. “Chris’s distinguished career with the DOJ was notable for his exemplary track record in investigating and prosecuting national security and cybercrime enforcement matters. His confidence and superb attention to detail are an asset in advising clients on the complex, sensitive and challenging problems they face in these highly regulated sectors, and the respect he enjoys among his peers is exceptional.”

Before and during law school, Veatch spent five years as a police officer. He earned his law degree (magna cum laude and Order of the Coif) from the Indiana University Mauer School of Law and joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a Staff Attorney in the Enforcement Division, where he investigated violations of the federal securities laws, including insider trading, market manipulation and offering and financial fraud. In 2005, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and within five years was promoted to be a Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section. Less than a year later, he was chosen to be the Deputy Chief of the newly-created National Security Section (as it was then known), and for the past five and a half years, Chris served as the Section’s Chief.

In a release, the firm said:

During his time as a federal prosecutor, Veatch took a series of cases to trial, and successfully argued his victories and other matters on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Among the complex and sensitive matters he has investigated and prosecuted are those involving cybercrime, securities, bank and accounting fraud, international bribery and money laundering schemes, copyright infringement, theft of trade secrets and economic espionage, and export control and U.S. sanctions programs, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Arms Export Control Act, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Export Administration Regulations, Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, Iranian Transactions Regulations, and other Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions programs, as well as other national security matters, including those involving international and domestic terrorism.

“Chris is a perfect fit for the Chicago Office. He is a proven first-chair trial lawyer in complex cases and is well-known and well-liked by many of our current partners already,” said Chris Wilson, Managing Partner of Perkins Coie’s Chicago office. “Chris adds even more depth to our national White Collar and Investigations practice, and he will be an important part of growing our Chicago office going forward. Most importantly, Chris provides a vital resource to our clients seeking guidance in the increasing regulatory environment surrounding cyber and securities enforcement. I’m delighted to welcome him to the firm.”

Former Dentons associate Michael Potere once said he wasn’t afraid of jail time for trying to extort his former employer, according to Above the Law, but now he has been sentenced to five months in prison.

Kathryn Rubino explains that Potere used access to a partner’s email account to download sensitive information about the firm. Then he threatened to release the information unless the firm gave him $210,000 and a piece of artwork.

Prosecutors had asked for a three-month prison sentence, but the U.S. district judge handling the case sentenced him to five months, plus a year of supervised release.

Read the Above the Law article.

A former in-house lawyer, accused of secretly videotaping nude and partially clothed female employees at his Florida company, has consented to be disbarred, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

James Patrick Stanton, formerly in-house lawyer with a Florida maintenance company, was alleged to have videotaped women showering, using the toilet and changing clothes in restrooms. A former IT employee of the company reported that he found videos on Stanton’s laptop in 2010 and told executives, but nothing was done.

After the IT employee left the company he gave evidence to police. But later the charges were dismissed after Stanton’s lawyers argued that the statute of limitations had expired, explains reporter Susan Taylor Martin.

Read the Tampa Bay Times article.

Trial lawyer Mark Werbner of Dallas litigation firm Sayles Werbner will address Texas lawyers about his decade-long quest to hold the Arab Bank responsible for providing financial support to U.S.-designated terror organizations.

Werbner will discuss Linde, et al. v. Arab Bank PLC in a presentation titled, “Fighting Terror-Financing in the Courtroom,” during the State Bar of Texas Litigation Update Institute’s 34th annual course Jan. 11–12, 2018.

In 2014, a jury in New York sided with Werbner, finding Jordan-based Arab Bank responsible for providing financial services to Hamas for 24 terror attacks during the “Second Intifada” in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The verdict was the culmination of a lawsuit filed in 2004 to obtain justice for nearly 300 American victims and their families. The case marked the first liability verdict against a foreign bank for violating the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Interview: Mark Werbner discussing Arab Bank case

Currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court is Jesner, et al., v. Arab Bank, a related case that would clarify if the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) applies to corporations under the 1789 U.S. law.

The Linde verdict earned Werbner the 2016 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from Public Justice, which honors attorneys who made the greatest contribution to the public interest through their work in precedent-setting, socially significant cases. His work has also been consistently recognized in top legal publications, such as The Best Lawyers in America.

Six years ago, former Manhattan lawyer Tor Ekeland traded in his fat paycheck for a not-so-lucrative private practice as one of a handful of defense lawyers who specialize in computer crimes.

Mother Jones profiles the 48-year-old, who says his boring corporate job for leading to alcoholism.

Reporter A.J. Vicens writes that Ekeland has strong feelings about the perceived nefarious intent of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Hackers “scare people. They make them feel vulnerable; there’s a hysteria about it.”

Ekeland has defended hackers against charges ranging from probing the defenses of municipal websites to conspiring to access federal email accounts.

Read the Mother Jones article.

A former partner of a California law firm showed up at the firm’s holiday party and killed his ex-boss before turning the gun on himself, reports the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Police named John Alexander Mendoza, 58, as the man who shot two colleagues, one fatally.

The incident occurred at the party held for Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin and Harrison. Mendoza’s name had been removed from the firm’s name after he was fired in recent days.

Above the Law also reported on the incident: “Mendoza reportedly told all lower-level staff members to leave the building before he opened fired upon senior managing partner Major A. Langer and Ronald Beck, who ran day-to-day operations at the firm. Langer was shot in the upper body and died at the scene, while Beck was shot in the leg and had a bullet graze his stomach.”

Mendoza was found dead at the scene with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Read the Press-Telegram article.

Evan Greebel, former lawyer of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, was convicted Wednesday by a federal jury of conspiring with his ex-client to defraud investors, reports Newsweek.

Greebel, “who was an outside counsel to Shkreli’s former company, Retrophin Inc, was found guilty of conspiring to commit wire fraud and securities fraud when he helped Shkreli steal $11 million from a pharmaceutical company to pay back investors after the former pharma bro lost their money in risky investments,” writes Christina Zhao.

Prosecutors accused Greebel of conspiring with Shkreli by helping him devise sham settlement and consulting contracts to pay back investors, using Retrophin assets.

Read the Newsweek article.

Flamboyant lawyer Richard Luthmann may fancy himself a champion of the little guy, but federal prosecutors say he is little more than a “violent criminal and fraudster” who bilked customers in a scrap-metal, had a victim threatened at gunpoint, and took advantage of a blind client in a bid to hide the scheme, reports SIlive.com.

The FBI arrested the Staten Island lawyer on a slew of charges, including kidnapping, kidnapping conspiracy, money laundering, brandishing a firearm to commit a crime, aggravated identity theft and extortion conspiracy.

Vice reports that Luthman is “facing federal charges for allegedly running a fake scrap metal empire that involved setting up a blind man as the fall guy and extorting people at gunpoint. In fact, according to the 11-count indictment in that case, the bow-tie-wearing Luthmann may prove to be one of the most colorful—and dangerous—criminals in recent New York City lore.”

Read reports on the case:

SIlive.com

Vice

New York Post

A lawyer who spent six months on the run after pleading guilty in a $500 million Social Security fraud scheme is back in Kentucky after he was caught outside a Pizza Hut in Honduras, reports CBS News.

Eric Conn pleaded guilty in March to stealing from the federal government and bribing a judge to fix Social Security fraud cases, but a federal judge released Conn on $1.25 million bail. Conn then absconded.

Honduran authorities captured Conn and handed him over to the FBI for a private plane ride back to Lexington, Kentucky. The lawyer who billed himself as “Mr. Social Security” was sentenced in absentia last summer to a 12-year prison term — the maximum possible.

Read the CBS News article.

Reuters is reporting that a former partner at a major law firm in Washington pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges that he tried to sell copies of sealed whistleblower lawsuits against corporations that he obtained while working at the U.S. Justice Department.

Reporter Nate Raymond writes that Jeffrey Wertkin was working at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP when he was arrested in January trying to sell an undercover federal agent one of the lawsuits while wearing a wig as a disguise, according to court papers.

As a former employee of the Justice Department, he had access to lawsuits filed by whistleblowers against companies on the government’s behalf to recover taxpayer funds paid out based on fraudulent claims. Prosecutors said he copied several whistleblower complaints and then tried to sell them for a “consulting fee.”

Read the Reuters article.

A former general counsel of insurer WellCare Health Plans Inc. has been sentenced to six months in prison for making a false statement to Florida’s Medicaid program as part of what prosecutors called a $35 million healthcare fraud scheme, Reuters reports.

A U.S. district judge in Tampa sentenced Thaddeus Bereday, who was indicted in 2011 along with four other former WellCare executive. The former GC pleaded guilty to a false statement charge in June, according to court records.

Reuters reporter Nate Raymond writes that Bereday, 52, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release during which he must spend one year in home confinement, prosecutors said. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

Read the Reuters article.

Perkins Coie announced that Adam H. Schuman has joined the firm’s White Collar & Investigations practice group as a partner in the New York office.

Schuman has experience as a former general counsel, federal prosecutor, law firm attorney and federal law clerk. He joins the firm from the New York State Executive Chamber, where he served as Special Counsel for Public Integrity for Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.

In a release, the firm said:

A seasoned litigator with more than 25 years’ experience, Adam has been at the focal point of some of the most highly publicized investigations and cases in the country, including serving as lead prosecutor in a securities fraud and money laundering trial arising out of the boiler room depicted in the film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” managing as senior in-house counsel the defense of Standard & Poor’s against multiple domestic and international government investigations and private litigations coming out of the 2008 financial crisis and, as a member of Governor Cuomo’s senior staff, advising the Executive Chamber on ethics, risk and compliance matters. As a result of Adam’s efforts as a federal prosecutor, he was awarded the Director’s Award for Superior Performance from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Adam is a highly respected and experienced litigator and trial attorney,” said Markus Funk, Chair of Perkins Coie’s White Collar & Investigations practice. “His prosecution and high-stakes defense background, coupled with his in-house and public sector experience, is an ideal match with our culture of professional excellence. We are excited to have him on our team.”

Before joining the Governor’s office in 2016, Adam began his career in public service as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. He then spent 12 years at McGraw-Hill/Standard & Poor’s, including as Executive Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer. The year prior to his tenure with the Governor’s office, Adam served as General Counsel for New York State Homes and Community Renewal, where he oversaw a legal team of more than 100 attorneys. Before that, Adam was a lawyer with the New York firms Paul Weiss and Corbin Silverman & Sanseverino and served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska in the Southern District of New York.

“Adam is admired by his peers nationally and in the New York legal market, and he brings an impressive list of credentials,” said Keith Miller, Managing Partner of Perkins Coie’s New York office. “As a former federal prosecutor, his addition complements the strategic growth of our New York office.”

Adam will focus his practice on representing and counseling companies through criminal and civil investigations and complex government, regulatory and compliance matters, including investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Senate and House committees and State Attorneys General. He earned his J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law and received his B.A., with Honors, from Swarthmore College.

Bloomberg Law reports that the judge overseeing Paul Manafort’s tax and money-laundering case in Washington had a stern warning for his lawyer: Stop with the sidewalk speeches.

“This is a criminal trial and not a public-relations campaign,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said at a hearing Thursday, according to reporters Andrew Harris and Tom Schoenberg.

The judge, threatening to impose a gag order, told the lawyers to do their “talking in the courtroom, and the pleadings, and not on the courthouse steps.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

Paul Manafort
Image by Disney | ABC Television Group

A little-noticed court filing unsealed this week as part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s ongoing probe could have big consequences for his other targets — showing he’s willing to use suspects’ lawyers to provide evidence against them, according to The Washington Post.

An opinion by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell found that one of Manafort’s former lawyers could be compelled to testify to the grand jury. She found a “crime fraud” exception to the attorney-client privilege, writing:

When a person uses the attorney-client relationship to further a criminal scheme, the law is well established that a claim of attorney-client or work-product privilege must yield to the grand jury’s investigatory needs.

Above the Law reports (sourcing the National Law Journal) that the attorney in question is Melissa Laurenza, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld whose practice focuses on campaign law and lobbying registration.

Read the Washington Post article.

Within minutes of attorney Tom Pickert’s murder Wednesday morning at his Kansas City-area home, his colleagues in a recent case started worrying about their own safety, reports The Kansas City Star.

One lawyer had assisted Pickert in an effort to secure assets from the defendant in a multi-million dollar civil case that Pickert and his partner had won in July. Now, he said, he doesn’t walk the dog or get the mail since Pickert’s death.

Reporters Glenn E. Rice and Donald Bradley quote the victim’s associate: “We became pretty religious about setting the alarm system at home and I started looking over my shoulder. But I’m still going to the office. I’m not letting this change my life.”

And a judge in a civil case where Pickert secured a $5.7 million judgment sealed records of the case to prevent jurors from being identified.

Pickert, 39, was fatally shot just after he returned to his home in Brookside early Wednesday after walking his children to school.

Read The Kansas City Star‘s article.

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A former Dentons associate who was fired and then allegedly threatened to leak sensitive information taken from the email account of a managing director of the firm has taken a plea deal on a lesser charge to avoid spending more than two decades behind bars.

Above the Law reports that Michael Potere accepted the deal that included dismissal of an underlying indictments that included a charge of extortion. That charge carried a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

“This summer, Potere was arrested and indicted on charges of extortion and attempted extortion affecting interstate commerce, as well as transmitting threatening communications with intent to extort,” according to reporter Staci Zaretsky. “At the time, the ex-Biglaw associate was represented by a public defender and faced up to 22 years in prison.”

Read the Above the Law article.

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Wilmington Trust Corp., the only financial institution to be criminally charged in connection with the federal bank bailout program, reached a $60 million settlement with prosecutors Tuesday just as the corporation and four former top executives were set to go to trial on bank fraud charges, the Associated Press reports.

After the bank reached a settlement, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Andrews postponed the trial for the former executives until March, finding they currently were not prepared to move forward without the bank as a co-defendant.

“Prosecutors accused Wilmington Trust, through its senior executives, of concealing the truth about the bank’s deteriorating commercial real estate loan portfolio from bank regulators, investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission,” writes reporter Randall Chase.

Read the AP article.

A tree trimming company has been handed the largest penalty imposed in a United States immigration case, totaling $95 million, after pleading guilty to employing illegal immigrants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Reuters reports that Asplundh Tree Experts Co., which trims trees and clears brush for power and gas lines across the country, hired employees who provided fake identification documents from 2010 to 2014, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia said.

The prosecutor said the company’s managers were “willfully blind” as supervisors and foremen hired illegal immigrants, writes Brendan O’Brien.

Read the Reuters article.

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