Class Action Defense News—Class Action Plaintiff Lawyer Melvyn Weiss Sentenced To 30 Months In Federal Prison
Melvyn Weiss, Noted Class Action Plaintiff Focusing on Securities Class Actions, Sentenced to 30 Months and Ordered to Pay $10 Million
We have written several articles covering the criminal charges against Melvyn Weiss and his former law partners, David Bershad and Steven Schulman, as well as another former Weiss law partner, William Lerach. The final chapter in the criminal charges against Mr. Weiss came to a close on June 2, 2008, when the federal court sentenced the 72-year-old Mr. Weiss to 30 months in federal prison. Rhonda Rundle and Nathan Koppel report on this event in today’s Wall Street Journal, writing that while the federal court referred to the 275 letters in support of Mr. Weiss as “a showing that I don’t think I’ve ever seen,” he nonetheless handed down a prison sentence very near to the 33-month prison term requested by prosecutors. Government filings reportedly place Mr. Weiss’s share of his law firm’s profits at more than $200 million.
The article, entitled “Weiss Gets 30-Month Sentence: Law Firms Ability To Be Lead Counsel Allowed for Big Fees,” may be found on page B4 of the June 3, 2008 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
