Molly Selvin of the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that securities class action plaintiff lawyer William Lerach has pleaded guilty “to a criminal charge that could send him to prison for up to two years,” but only if the federal court agrees to the terms of his plea bargain, which includes a provision insulating his San Diego class action law firm from criminal prosecution. While he was not named in the federal indictment handed down last year against plaintiff class action law firm Milberg Weiss and two of its then-named partners, Steven Schulman and David Bershad, Ms. Selvin reports that Lerach “is widely believed to be one of the unnamed partners referred to frequently throughout the 20-count indictment.” In addition to the possibility of a two-year prison term, Lerach is to pay an $8 million fine.
Ms. Selvin’s article, entitled “Lawyer enters plea of guilty: William Lerach pleads in a scheme to bribe plaintiffs in class-action suits for shareholders,” may be found in the Business Section of the October 30, 2007 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
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