|
|
| Law-Firm Founder Dreier Sentenced To 20 |
| By online.wsj.com |
| Published: 07/15/2009 |
|
By Chad Brayn Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday after admitting in May to a scheme to sell $700 million in fake promissory notes and steal client funds. At a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan sentenced Dreier, one-time managing partner of Dreier LLP, to spend 20 years behind bars - one year shy of his life expectancy of 80 years, according to the judge. The judge also ordered Dreier to pay $387.7 million in restitution and indicated he would approve the government's request for $746 million in forfeiture. "I am sorry, deeply sorry for the harm and sadness I have caused so many people," said Dreier, dressed in a dark blue suit and maroon tie. "At this point, all I can do is express my shame and remorse." Dreier, 59 years old, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and five counts of wire fraud in May in a scheme that duped hedge funds and other investors into making investments in hundreds of millions of dollars in fake promissory notes, or loans. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan had asked Dreier be sentenced to 145 years in prison, while Gerald Shargel, Dreier's lawyer, had asked for a sentence of 10 years to 12 years in prison. Dreier, who had been confined to his Manhattan apartment on 24-hour home detention while awaiting sentencing, was immediately remanded into custody after the hearing. The sentencing marks the end of a stunning fall for Dreier, who started his own law firm in 1996 and grew the firm to about 270 lawyers with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh in the months before the scheme collapsed last year. The fraud came apart last December when Dreier was arrested in Canada after he tried to impersonate a lawyer for a Canadian pension plan. The sentence was significantly less than the 150-year sentence received by convicted Ponzi-scheme operator Bernard Madoff last month, but in line with stiff sentences given to Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas, former Worldcom Inc. Chief Executive Bernard J. Ebbers and ex-Refco Inc. Chief Executive Phillip R. Bennett. Rigas, 84, is serving a 12-year sentence, Ebbers is serving 25 years in prison and Bennett is serving a 16-year prison term. Read More. |
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. His antics were known from town to town as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. Hamilton Lindley with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.
So in most cases, the aforementioned case is sorta confusing. But this is not the case if you are to look at health care law firm. If you avail strategies and tips from them then the related issue would rather be the most satisfying end result.