Legal News

Prosecutors claim Milberg Weiss deliberately withheld missing fax in kickback investigation

By Jason Siegel

Federal prosecutors in the Milberg Weiss case filed court papers on Monday opposing the New York securities firm's recent motions to dismiss and revealed new details about a fax at the heart of the government's case., The National Law Journal reports today.

The fax was subpoenaed in 2002 and was found in a safe in the office founding partner Melvyn Weiss, who said it wasn't deliberately withheld.

The decade-old fax was sent to then-Milberg Weiss partner David Bershad from Steve Cooperman, a named plaintiff in several Milberg Weiss cases, and relates to an arrangement in which Weiss agreed to pay Cooperman $175,000 for having served as a plaintiff in a case. He disguised the payment as a refundable option on the purchase of a Picasso painting owned by Cooperman, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors claim that Bershad, in response to the government's 2002 subpoena, called Weiss to his office after discovering the fax and other documents in his desk drawer. "Weiss took them from Bershad, falsely stating, 'David, you had nothing to do with the art option,'" prosecutors claimed in their recent motion. "Weiss then put the documents in his safe, concealing them from Milberg Weiss' document custodian who was searching for documents responsive to the subpoena."

Read the full story here

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 06, 2008 (boomark / email).