Judge ‘Sick And Tired of Lawyers From White-Shoe Law Firms’ Helping Clients Avoid Charges
Bloomberg reports an exasperated federal judge who sentenced an Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC consultant to prison posed a question that prosecutors have yet to satisfactorily answer: Why has no one else been charged in a sprawling bribery case?
“I’m sick and tired of lawyers from white-shoe law firms marching into my courtroom and getting a deferred-prosecution agreement for their clients,” said U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis in his Brooklyn court. “We have a law, so someone should go out and enforce it.”
He sentenced Samuel Mebiame, the 43-year-old son of the former prime minister of Gabon, to two years behind bars for paying bribes and acting as a “fixer” to help Och-Ziff with lucrative mining deals in Africa, reports Patricia Hurtado.
Garaufis demanded to know why the hedge fund got a deferred-prosecution deal last year that will result in the dismissal of criminal charges if it stays out of trouble for the next three years.