Legal News

Lerach Prison Time Debate

By Nathan Koppel

How long should Bill Lerach serve in prison? In October, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to conceal alleged kickback payments made by his old firm, Milberg Weiss.

The plea agreement calls for a one to two-year sentence. Within that range, exactly how much is just right is now a source of debate within the federal government.

The U.S. Probation Office has recommended 15 months, but in a court filing yesterday prosecutors asked for two years. Los Angeles federal Judge John Walter is due to sentence the famed securities litigator a week from Monday.

A mere 15 months, prosecutors argue, “does not adequately promote respect for the law, nor does it provide just punishment.”

The federal sentencing guidelines, according to prosecutors, actually call for Lerach to serve 27 to 33 months. But two years suffices, they assert: “Defendant, who will be 62 years old upon commencement of his sentence, now stands in disgrace before the profession of which he considered himself a national leader.”

The probation office requests 15 months, because it concludes Lerach is subject to an earlier, less punitive, version of the sentencing guidelines than the one used by prosecutors.

John Keker, Lerach’s lawyer, said “We obviously think the probation office has it right and [prosecutors] have it wrong.”

In other news, Judge Walter yesterday sentenced Seymor Lazar, a former Milberg client who pleaded guilty last year in the kickback case, to six months of home detention. The judge also ordered him to pay a fine of $600,000, on top of the $1.5 million he has already forfeited to the government.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 29, 2008 (boomark / email).