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.

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.

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.

Stacia Hollinshead, a 30-year-old assistant state’s attorney from DeKalb County, Ill., was murdered in Wisconsin, and her ex-husband has been arrested.

The Daily Chronicle of DeKalb, Ill., reports that Hollinshead, who is a mother of one and a graduate of Northern Illinois University’s Law School, was pronounced dead at the scene, in her parents’ house in Wisconsin.

Police arrested her ex-husband, Ulisses Medina Espinoza, in connection with the murder. Hollinshead had sought a protective court order to keep Medina Espinosa away from her, citing a pattern of verbal and digital harassment.

The report quotes Mark Cordes, interim dean and professor of law at NIU’s College of Law: “Stacia had tremendous potential as a lawyer and a very bright future ahead of herself. She was the type of graduate that makes our school very proud.”

Read the Daily Chronicle article.

Bloomberg Law is reporting that a Washington, D.C., attorney is in criminal contempt of court for refusing to answer questions about where his client’s assets could be found, the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed March 26.

The court found that Matthew LeFande disregarded oral and written orders to answer questions on the witness stand by the magistrate judge in the underlying case. That underlying litigation began when LeFande’s client sold a property through a real estate settlement company, and the company mistakenly transferred almost $300,000 back to her instead of to her mortgage lender.

At a status conference, the magistrate judge ordered LeFande to answer questions, but he refused, asserting attorney-client and Fifth Amendment privileges, writes Bloomberg’s Martina Barash.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

The Russian election interference report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, still not fully disclosed, is raising a number of questions and also surprised some who practice criminal law, according to a report by Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.

“It is perhaps somewhat surprising that Mr. Mueller didn’t provide a conclusion on the issue of obstruction of justice. Certainly, many Americans were expecting a clear-cut decision,” said Philip Hilder, a former U.S. prosecutor in Houston who now is a white-collar criminal defense lawyer at Hilder & Associates, P.C.

“But proving either conspiracy or obstruction is a difficult challenge. Until the portion of the actual Mueller report is disclosed articulating his rationale, I could only speculate as to why there is no solid conclusion after a two-year investigation.

“Perhaps more surprising is that Attorney General William Barr concluded after only 48 hours of review that the investigation is not sufficient to establish that the president obstructed justice. Assuming the bulk of the report itself is released, a fuller picture will come into focus as to why Mueller demurred and whether Mr. Barr’s conclusion is justified,” said Hilder who has represented whistleblowers and other defendants in high-profile trials.

“As to how much of the report and grand jury testimony should be turned over to Congress, it is reasonable to assume that a large portion is based on grand jury material. A court order is needed to release that information. A blanket release requested by Congress may not be possible, since there may be evidence disclosed that is related to ongoing investigations by other federal prosecutors as well criminal prosecutions already indicted by the Mueller team. Nonetheless, it may take a while until all the grand jury material is scrutinized before its possible release. I would anticipate rolling production, with Congress receiving parts of the report over time.”

First NBC Bank’s former top lawyer was charged in federal court Friday 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 News Orleans Advocate.

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

“St. Angelo was charged in a bill of information rather than a grand jury indictment, generally a sign that a defendant has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors. He is due for a first appearance in federal court March 29,” writes McAuley.

Read the Advocate article.

Justin Paperny, a a former Bear Stearns stockbroker who spent 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to commit fraud, has become a go-to resource for wealthy criminals preparing for prison, according to a report in The Washington Post.

He and his eight-person firm, White Collar Advice, have already been hired by one person tied to the college admissions scandal. Post reporter Peter Holley writes that Paperny provided an invoice showing a down payment of several thousand dollars. And multiple people charged in the scandal have reached out to him for advice, he said, and he suspects he may be hired by several of them.

“Paperny said his fee — which could reach tens of thousands of dollars for his latest client — is high, in part, because he’s one of the few people who can speak to upper-crust criminals in a language they understand,” writes Holley.

Read the Post article.

Defendants in the college admissions cheating scandal case have been turning to Biglaw firms for representation, including Cooley, Sidley Austin, Latham & Watkins, Boies Schiller Flexner, and Ropes & Gray.

Bloomberg Law reports that two of the latest hires are Cooley partners Randall R. Lee and William Schwartz, who have been hired by Jane Buckingham, the founder and chief executive of Trendera, a youth marketing consultancy. Prosecutors allege she paid $50,000 for someone to take the ACT college entrance exam in her son’s place.

And Jack W. Pirozzolo, a partner in Sidley Austin’s Boston office, is representing William McGlashan Jr., who worked at private equity firm TPG before being fired in the wake of the scandal.

Read the Bloomberg article.

A bid to overturn a fraud conviction for Peter Hoffman, a lawyer turned movie producer, has picked up support from 14 retired federal judges, nine criminal law professors and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Hoffman once ran a company called Carolco Pictures, which made some successful films. In the 1990s, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false tax return. Then, in 2014, federal prosecutors charged Hoffman with wire fraud for submitting false expense reports on a Louisiana mansion being transformed into a postproduction facility. Hoffman did so to get $1.13 million in movie tax credits issued by Louisiana, according to the Reporter‘s Eriq Gardner.

The trial court sentenced him to 60 months of probation, an unprecedented departure from federal sentencing guidelines that recommended a range of 168 to 210 months in prison. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the trial court to take another look, possibly leading to a harsher sentence.

Hoffman has petitioned the court for a review.

Read the Hollywood Reporter article.