William Lerach Goes Down Fighting With WaPo Commentary

Corporate Law

William Lerach Goes Down Fighting With WaPo Commentary

Posted Nov 12, 2007, 02:11 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Securities class-action lawyer William Lerach, who pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to lead plaintiffs, takes aim at sweet deals for corporate CEOs who lose shareholder money in a commentary published in the Washington Post.

Lerach complains that he is being held “accountable for overzealously pursuing these corporate scam artists” while CEOs who make “stupid decisions” get performance bonuses and stock profits from risky short-term strategies that harm their companies in the long-run.

In particular, Lerach targets former Merrill chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal and former Citigroup chief executive Charles O. Prince. He says the two chiefs lost more than $20 billion in company money while leaving with $360 million in their own pockets.

Lerach faces up to two years in jail and nearly $8 million in fines and penalties under his plea deal.

“I'm on my way to prison because, in my zeal to stand up against this kind of corporate greed over the years, I stepped over the line,” Lerach writes. “It turns out that the legal system is a lot tougher on shareholder lawyers than it appears to be on Wall Street executives.”

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