Legal News

Melvyn Weiss reports for lock-up

By Jason Siegel

Melvyn Weiss, co-founding partner of Milberg, the shareholder class action law firm once called Milberg Weiss, begins his 30-month prison sentence today at a men?s minimum security facility in Morgantown, W.Va.

Weiss pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge, admitting that he lied to judges and secretly paid kickbacks to lead plaintiffs as part of a criminal enterprise that lasted 25 years. In his plea deal, Weiss agreed to forfeit $9.75 million and pay a $250,000 fine. He has since paid that full amount.

During his sentencing, Weiss had sought the minimum of 18 months under his plea deal with prosecutors. But U.S. District Judge John Walter of the Central District of California, where the government?s case was prosecuted, shaved a mere three months off the maximum sentence.

-- Amanda Bronstad

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 28, 2008 (boomark / email).