Former BigLaw lawyer is sentenced to six months in prison
A former counsel at Bryan Cave will have to serve prison time in a scheme to help his client buy Maxim magazine by defrauding lenders.
Lawyer Harvey Newkirk was sentenced on Thursday to six months in jail and three years of supervised release after his conviction for wire fraud, report the New York Law Journal (sub. req.), Bloomberg Big Law Business and Reuters. He was also ordered to pay $3.1 million in restitution.
Newkirk’s client, Calvin Darden Jr., impersonated his wealthy father in a bid to buy the magazine. Darden testified that Newkirk helped him forge documents in the scheme. Prosecutors had alleged that Newkirk was motivated by “greed and avarice.”
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff differed with the government’s characterization of the case. “I don’t agree with the government that this was a man motivated by endless greed,” Rakoff said. “The truth so often lies in between.”
Newkirk cried during the sentencing hearing and said he should not have trusted Darden.
