Roundup Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Arrested on Extortion Charges
Image by Mike Mozart
Bloomberg reports that federal officials have arrested a Virginia lawyer accused of trying to extort a chemical manufacturer in connection with litigation over a common weedkiller.
Timothy Litzenburg was arrested for allegedly threatening “to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm” if an unnamed company didn’t provide a $200 million payment disguised as a “consulting agreement,” according to a Justice Department complaint.
Litzenburg — charged with attempted extortion, transmitting interstate communications with the intent to extort, and conspiracy — was one of the lawyers who represented a plaintiff who won jury verdict against Bayer AG in 2018 after alleging that the company’s product, Roundup, caused his terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.