Melvyn Weiss has agreed to plead guilty to a single racketeering count, specifically that he engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity covering at least the period of 1979 to 2005. Weiss admits to multiple instances of kickbacks to plaintiffs and agrees to serve a sentence of 18 to 33 months in prison and to forfeit $10 million. He shortly will formally plead guilty before US District Judge John Walter in Los Angeles and prosecutors will ask for the 33-month maximum.
The firm, which will now be known as Milberg LLP, still faces criminal charges. The New York Times story here quotes from statements released by Weiss and the firm, and contains this observation from Stanford law professor Joseph Grundfest, a former SEC commissioner: “It’s a situation where it appears that there has been fraud in pursuit of fraud. And just like mom explained that two wrongs don’t make a right, it follows both that corporate executives shouldn’t lie and the lawyers suing them shouldn’t steal. What’s complicated about that?”