Insurers hit the trifecta this week! First Eliot Spitzer had to step down as New York's crusading governor after a prostitution scandal, then trial attorney extraordinaire Dickie Scruggs pled guilty to bribing a judge in a Hurricane Katrina suit. Now the king of class-actions, Melvyn I. Weiss, copped a plea for his role in a scam to drum up plaintiffs. Why isn't Congress investigating this parade of misconduct by officers of the court?
As reported by our own Dan Hays, Mr. Weiss agreed yesterday to plead guilty to a federal racketeering charge, pay a $10 million fine and accept a jail sentence of up to 33 months for his illegal plaintiff recruitment activities in connection with hundreds of class lawsuits. (Click here for the complete story.)
This kickback scheme lasted for more than 25 years and had a severely detrimental effect on the administration of justice across the nation as lies were routinely made to judges, said U.S. Attorney Thomas P. OBrien in Los Angeles. The scheme was based in greed, and it affected the integrity of the courts and the interests of an untold number of absent class members.
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