Legal News

Hacker retained by former KB Home CEO Karatz

By Richard Binder

Bruce Karatz has retained Jonathan Hacker, an appellate specialist at O'Melveny & Myers, for his legal team.

Hacker, who is a partner in the Washington office of Los Angeles-based O'Melveny, has written briefs in dozens of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and several federal appeals courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Most recently, Hacker was a member of the defense team that filed briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the criminal conviction of Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling, arguing that the "honest services" criminal fraud statute under which he had been charged was unconstitutionally vague. On June 24, the high court found in Skilling's favor, ruling 9-0 to limit the honest services theory to individuals participating in bribery and kickback schemes.

Karatz, the former chief executive officer of KB Home, was convicted earlier this year in a stock-options backdating trial.  Although acquitted on other counts, including securities fraud, he had been charged with personally pocketing more than $6.5 million in backdated options.

Full story at NLJ.com.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 13, 2010 (boomark / email).