Melvyn Weiss sentenced for class-action kickback scheme
The securities lawyer made millions by paying off plaintiffs to sue major companies. He gets 30 months in prison and must forfeit $9.75 million in earnings.
Prominent securities lawyer Melvyn Weiss was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison for his involvement in a long-running kickback scheme that generated millions of dollars in fees through class-action lawsuits against some of the country's largest companies.
In a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter also ordered Weiss to pay $250,000 in fines, forfeit $9.75 million in earnings and serve three years of probation.
Reading from a prepared statement before being sentenced, Weiss, 72, apologized to his family and colleagues for his "wrongful conduct."
"I promise you my contrition is profound and genuine," he said. "My punishment has already been great."
Prosecutors said that Milberg Weiss, the New York law firm that Weiss co-founded, made an estimated $250 million in fees over more than two decades by filing class-action lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs who were paid for their involvement through kickbacks. Companies targeted by the suits included AT&T, Xerox Corp. and United Airlines.
In April, Weiss pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that called for a sentence of 18 to 33 months, with half of the time potentially spent performing community service or in home confinement.
Although prosecutors pressed Walter to hand down the full 33 months, Weiss' attorney Benjamin Brafman repeatedly asked the judge to consider Weiss' long history of pro-bono and charity work.
Weiss was disbarred after his conviction, which he described in court this morning as a "fall from grace."
tiffany.hsu@latimes.com
