Fen Phen Lawyers, Charged With Bilking Clients, Head to Trial

This is a discussion on Fen Phen Lawyers, Charged With Bilking Clients, Head to Trial within the Attorneys & Legal Ethics forum, part of the ATTORNEYS, COURTS, LITIGATION category; And speaking of horse racing, the two lawyers who used allegedly misappropriated settlement funds to purchase last year’s Preakness winner, ...

Consult Your Own Personal Lawyer Now!
Reply  POST NEW QUESTION

 

Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old May 12th, 2008, 04:51 PM   #1
News
 
WSJ Law Blog's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 6,060

Default Fen Phen Lawyers, Charged With Bilking Clients, Head to Trial



And speaking of horse racing, the two lawyers who used allegedly misappropriated settlement funds to purchase last year’s Preakness winner, Curlin, are set to head to trial today in federal court in Covington, Kentucky. Last June, the two lawyers — Shirley Cunningham and William Gallion — along with a third, Melbourne Mills, were indicted for allegedly bilking their clients out of about $65 million of a $200 million settlement in a Kentucky case over diet drug Fen Phen.

According to this piece in the Courier Journal, at trial, presided over by district judge William O. Bertelsman, who earlier this year saddled the defendants with some seriously high bail, the prosecution will put on 40 witnesses to show how the lawyers moved money between bank accounts, allegedly violating four laws and 13 ethics rules. Some of the money, the prosecution may show, went to buy a Porsche, a BMW and courtside seats at Rupp Arena, home of the Wildcats. Gallion and Cunningham used part of their settlement cash to purchase Curlin, the 2007 Horse of the Year.

If convicted, the lawyers could receive up to 20 years in prison. The indictment, according to the Courier Journal, also seeks damages of $45 million and the return of more than $20 million that the lawyers placed in a charitable fund that they paid themselves $149,800 each to manage.

The lawyers, who have pleaded not guilty, have conceded that “some matters could have been handled differently, so as to cause less su****ion and criticism,” as one of their lawyers said. But in court papers, the defendants reportedly claim that their former clients were handsomely compensated and that their fees — $75 million for themselves, $30 million for consultants and other lawyers — were approved by a judge, although that judge later resigned after being accused of misconduct in the case. (Their clients reportedly received $74.2 million of the $200 million that the drug-maker now known as Wyeth paid in 2001 to settle the class action.) Also, one of the plaintiffs’ experts wrote in a pretrial report that they “relied heavily on the advice and guidance” of Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley, who negotiated the Fen Phen settlement and is a defendant in the civil suit against the lawyers.

A government expert, Northern Kentucky University law prof Edward Brewer, will testify that Gallion’s claim in 2002 that clients were “thrilled” to give away excess funds to a charitable fund was “bovine excrement,” as he described it in a pretrial report.

Last edited by top_admin; May 12th, 2008 at 06:10 PM.
WSJ Law Blog is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmark & Share



Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off

Format Your Messages
Add Forum to Google Toolbar
Forum Jump

Similar Threads

Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Ky. fen-phen lawyers ordered to return $30 million (AP) Yahoo! News Crimes and Trials News 0 Apr 7th, 2009 06:30 PM
Remaining Fen-Phen Lawyers Found Guilty of Swindling Clients WSJ Law Blog Law News 0 Apr 3rd, 2009 04:20 PM
Hung Jury for Last Two Fen-Phen Lawyers WSJ Law Blog Law News 0 Jul 3rd, 2008 04:00 PM
With Allegations of Juror-Stalking, Fen-Phen Trial Grows Even Stranger WSJ Law Blog Attorneys & Legal Ethics 0 Jun 10th, 2008 07:11 PM
Kentucky Heart Charity Takes Center Stage in Fen-Phen Trial WSJ Law Blog Attorneys & Legal Ethics 0 May 21st, 2008 02:20 PM


Forming an off-shore company? We can assist you in forming your company in 40 countries worldwide.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:26 PM.