White Collar Crime

Bipolar Lawyer Got in Over His Head, Committed $1M Fraud in ‘Manic Phase,’ His Lawyer Says

While he was still practicing in the $1,000-a-month law office his father established, Frank Plowden Jenkins II was doing fine. But the bipolar Maryland attorney got into trouble when, in a “manic phase,” he rented fancy new space at $6,500 a month in White Plains and started investing in a…

Mar 11, 2011 5:00 PM CST

Ex McGuireWoods Partner Pleads Guilty re Fake IRS Doc Purporting to Lift Levy on Her Draw

Apparently seeking money to which she was not entitled, a former partner of McGuireWoods admittedly provided a phony Internal Revenue Service document to the firm’s general counsel in February 2010. It purported to release a levy under which the IRS was seeking to collect, from partnership payments to Michelle Renee…

Mar 10, 2011 10:25 PM CST

Ex-Judge Gets 26 Years as Mastermind in Racketeering Conspiracy Vote-Purchase Case

A former Kentucky judge has been sentenced to over 26 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy among public officials to gain power and control by corrupting Clay County elections in 2002, 2004 and 2006. U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves called former Clay County Circuit Judge R.…

Mar 10, 2011 9:51 PM CST

Lawyer Accused of Cheating 170 Clients Makes Restitution, Gets Probation

Attorney Diana Minella never intended to scam her clients, her lawyer says. But, due to bad business practices, she wound up being accused of taking money from 170 of them for services she didn’t provide. Today, after paying $36,000 in restitution, the suspended Texas lawyer was sentenced to eight years…

Mar 8, 2011 1:58 AM CST

Judge Partially Convicted in Kids-for-Cash Case Seeks Acquittal or New Trial

Convicted by a federal jury in Scranton of 12 of the 39 counts that he faced in a bribery case, a former president judge of Luzerne County is now trying for zero. Mark Ciavarella is seeking to negate the remaining convictions, asking for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in…

Mar 4, 2011 8:33 PM CST

Ex-General Counsel, 4 Other Former WellCare Execs Indicted in Claimed $400M Medicaid Fraud

A former general counsel of WellCare is among five ex-executives of the Florida-based company who were indicted by a federal grand jury in an alleged Medicaid fraud that is claimed to have raked in as much as $400 million to $600 million. Like the other defendants, ex-GC Thaddeus Bereday, 45,…

Mar 4, 2011 1:15 AM CST

‘Doctored’ Docs Create Mistrial for Lawmaker Accused of Illegally Helping Sis in Supreme Court Race

A Pennsylvania judge today declared a mistrial in the case of a state lawmaker and ex-prosecutor accused of conspiring with a sister to illegally use her staff to help another sister, who now sits on the state supreme court, with election campaign work. Contending, after prosecutors brought documents entered by…

Mar 3, 2011 9:56 PM CST

Retired Detroit-Area Drug Prosecutor Takes Plea in Trial-Testimony Case, Will Get 6 Months

A retired chief drug prosecutor in the Detroit area has taken a plea in a controversial perjury case, along with two police officers, leaving only a former Wayne County judge awaiting trial. Karen Plants pleaded guilty yesterday to misconduct in office, for which she will get a six-month jail sentence…

Mar 3, 2011 6:50 PM CST

GC Loses Onetime $720K-a-Year Job Over ‘Evidence of Financial Irregularities’

After working for a little less than a year as the top lawyer for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, general counsel Roosevelt Hairston Jr. was terminated last month. In a written statement, the hospital cited “an internal investigation that found evidence of financial irregularities,” reports the Legal Intelligencer in an article…

Mar 1, 2011 8:13 PM CST

Ex-McKinsey Chief and Ex-Goldman Sachs Board Member Is Sued in SEC Insider-Trading Case

A former managing director of global management consultant McKinsey & Company has been accused of providing tips about Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. to a defendant in a high-profile insider-trading case. Rajat K. Gupta, 62, who was a member of the board of directors of both…

Mar 1, 2011 7:30 PM CST

Law Firm Worker Blew Through Most of the $2.7M She Stole, So Restitution Is Only $389K

In addition to being a thief who stole some $2.7 million in seven years from the United Kingdom law firm at which she was a longtime, trusted employee, Louise Martini also was apparently not a good manager of money. Having reportedly spent most of the moolah on living large (her…

Mar 1, 2011 5:55 PM CST

SEC Is Giving Whistle-Blower Protection One Last Lick

The Wall Street financial meltdown left the markets in turmoil. It also led to the most expansive legislative overhaul of financial supervision since the 1930s New Deal: the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Part of the law, passed by Congress last July, juices the ability of the…

Mar 1, 2011 10:20 AM CST

Disbarred Fla. Lawyer Gets 4 Years for Mail Fraud; Accused of Stealing $3.9M from Clients

A disbarred South Florida lawyer has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for mail fraud and ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution after pleading guilty to the crime in December. That is the amount Joseph Sindaco, 63, is of stealing from clients, in various alleged schemes, at…

Feb 25, 2011 9:57 PM CST

Attorney Confessed Bank Robbery In Order to Continue Pretend Practice, His Lawyer Says

Seemingly, the federal time Peter Elliott knew he was facing after pleading guilty to bank fraud for siphoning some $3.6 million from his attorney trust account might well have been one of the Wisconsin lawyer’s biggest problems in July of last year. But after he was brought in by a…

Feb 24, 2011 11:30 PM CST

4 Foreign Bankers Indicted in US, Accused of Conspiracy to Help Americans Hide Assets, Evade Taxes

Four former bankers at a major Swiss bank have been indicted in federal court in Alexandria, Va., for allegedly conspiring to help U.S. residents evade taxes by hiding assets in secret accounts at four foreign banks in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Israel. None of the defendants is in custody. Marco…

Feb 24, 2011 6:05 PM CST