Dominatrix Allegedly Ran $50M Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Just can't match what the ABA Journal ran today with Martha Neil so let me just excise those salient pieces which are juicy enough for anyone's Friday. Okay trivia fans, which movie was it with Richard Gere and the judge and the whips and the chains? Was it not 'And Justice For All?'

In the news last month when he complained that authorities had searched his law office, a Long Island criminal, matrimonial and real estate attorney now has additional trouble on his agenda.

Private practitioner George Guldi, 57, is accused of running, along with a dominatrix, her husband and two more New York lawyers, a $50 million mortgage scam that allegedly used straw buyers recruited from a fetish club to help dupe lenders into granting excessive mortgages, reports Newsday. When the mortgages weren't paid, the homes reportedly went into foreclosure.

Guldi is particularly well-known because he is a former Suffolk County legislator. He has now been criminally charged in what Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota describes as a "seven-year-long mortgage fraud spree" operated between 2002 and 2009 concerning dozens of upscale homes in the Hamptons, according to the newspaper and the Associated Press.

A lawyer representing Guldi, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree grand larceny and other charges in Southampton Village Justice Court, declined Newsday's request for comment. The newspaper says Guldi is accused of "act[ing] as the lawyer in dozens of fraudulent transactions that made him millions."

Prosecutors say another New York lawyer, 49-year-old Ethan Ellner, created fake titles that falsely claimed homes involved in the scam were free and clear of mortgages and other debt, Newsday reports. Thus, the straw buyers allegedly recruited with payments of $5,000 to $10,000 to overstate their incomes and pose as legitimate purchasers of expensive East End homes in the Town of Southampton were able to persuade banks to loan more on the homes than they were worth, according to the government.

Defendant Carrie Coakley, 38, who was featured in the 1998 documentary Whipped, and her husband, Donald MacPherson, 65, allegedly recruited straw buyers from among the clientele of their sexual fetish fantasy business, Arena Studios.

MacPherson is the publisher of the SoHo Journal, reports the East Hampton Star, in an article that provides additional background information about Guldi.

Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "Prosecutors Seized All Files in My Law Office, NY Attorney Says"

'Dallas DNA' Newest Crime Reality Show to Air

First came LA Law. Then Boston Legal. Now, Dallas DNA is poised to hit the nation's airwaves, reports the ABA Journal.

But, unlike the earlier award-winning television dramas, this one is set in real life. "Dallas DNA chronicles a pioneering unit within the Dallas County’s District Attorney’s office where post-conviction DNA testing is being used to clear the innocent, as well as confirm the guilty," reports a press release about the new six-part series, which premieres April 28 on Investigation Discovery.

Under a new DA, Craig Watkins, the Texas office created the first DNA-testing program in the nation overseen by a prosecutor that seeks to correct unjust convictions. Investigation Discovery was given exclusive and unprecedented access by the DA's office and the local court system to film the work of the conviction integrity unit established by Watkins and interview the prisoners and families involved.

Since state law authorized post-conviction testing in 2001, there have been more DNA exonerations in Dallas County than anywhere else in the country.

Can't think of a better reality show for the public to see than this. You have to look at every viewer as a potential juror, who will one day not necessarily be deciding a murder case, but the reliability of forensic evidence or the credibility of a uniformed officer's testimony. A show like this has an underlying message of switching mindsets.

Was Journal Blogger Dan Slater Laid Off?

The ABA Journal is today reporting that the popular Dan Slater, the writer for the Wall Street Journal Law Blog is one of 14 people laid off in the news room.

'A post by writer Dan Slater on Friday said it was his last day and legal editor Ashby Jones will now guide the blog. A note on the website doesn’t identify Jones as the sole writer, though; instead it says the newspaper’s legal affairs group will do the writing.

The Wall Street Journal announced the 14 newsroom cuts last month and said a legal staffer would be cut, according to Legal Blog Watch. But the newspaper didn’t identify which legal journalist would be laid off, making Slater’s note a surprise. Legal Blog Watch speculates the change could mean the Wall Street Journal Law Blog will reduce its coverage of the legal industry.'

Blogger Robert Ambrogi of Legal Blog Watch isn’t happy with that prospect. He explains his devotion to the Law Blog this way: “A typical day for me goes something like this: Wake up. Check the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog. Brush my teeth. Check the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog. Make coffee. Check the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog. Shower. Check the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog. You get the picture

Whatever Dan does he does well. And he was one heck of a legal blogger. Good luck to him.

ABA Pushes for 1,000-Lawyer Legal Corps

H. Thomas Wells, Jr., is the new head of the ABA and there is a noble feature today in their daily online journal about him pushing the White House for the creation of a 1,000-lawyer Legal Corps to represent the needs of those without the means to hire private counsel. The way things are going in our country that might mean lots of us.

Wells thinks that a Legal Corps would direct more lawyers into efforts to represent a broad segment of working people in matters arising out of the economic crisis, such as foreclosures. Legal Corps lawyers would bolster services already being provided by lawyers in local offices supported by federal funding channeled through the Legal Services Corp. and lawyers working on a pro bono basis.

Wells said the ABA is bolstering efforts to assist lawyers who have been affected by the economic downturn. One of those steps has been to create a “recession survival kit” or Lawyer's Resource Center that is available to members on the ABA website.

We forget sometimes the diversity and talent we bring as lawyers to the table. In a time of financial downturn, I do see lots of lawyers now boasting a 'foreclosure defense practice.' It would also be a good time for lawyers to reach out and lend their skill sets to the Legal Aid Society, because we can reasonably expect that the demands upon their agencies are also enhanced. So here is a shout out for Mr. Wells and the proposed ABA project. Read about it below.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/economic_concerns_have_become_the_chief_issue_for_aba_president

Feds to Target Lawyers in Fraud Cases

ABA Journal piece by Martha Neil

Lawyers and other "gatekeepers," such as mortgage and real estate brokers, should be prime targets in upcoming criminal prosecutions of widespread fraud underlying the current economic crisis, officials said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.

“They have the most to lose, they’re the most likely to flip, and they make the best examples,” testified Neil Barofsky. He is special inspector general for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, reports a Blog of Legal Times post on the hearing.

However, prosecutorial resources are stretched thin after an exponential increase in mortgage fraud, and the hearing was primarily focused on how these resources can be enhanced, Bloomberg reports.

The FBI now has more than 1,800 open mortgage fraud investigations, double the number in the 2006 fiscal year, the news agency writes.

The proposed Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act would both expand the potential scope of federal criminal law and provide another $500 million to boost prosecutions, reports Pro Publica.

The bill would broaden the 1863 False Claims Act to permit prosecution of any fraudulent claim for government money or property, even if no government official or employee is directly implicated, and regardless of the defendant's intent to defraud the government, Government Executive reports. It is co-sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) who chairs the committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

This proposal is one of a series of aggressive steps by federal prosecutors to hold lawyers more accountable for the conduct of their clients, and my fear is just when and where they will draw the line. Local prosecutions of prominent counsel here in Broward and Dade tip the scales on this one. The feds may have gone to far already, though they would suggest otherwise. Now they are looking for legislation to sustain and buttress their position.

Drunk Lawyer Promises to 'Bend Over' Cops

This guy should not have been a lawyer.

You see, a citizen has a right to curse out a cop and call him names, and is statutorily protected from being charged. Not so if you are lawyers. Lawyers have less free speech rights than citizens they defend, we are learning. We have the Bar.

Don't get me wrong. A citizen who calls cops out in the street will still get his ass kicked, but at least you can't be prosecuted for calling a cop a bad name. As a matter of fact, in Broward, some whippersnapper of a young lawyer named Howard Finkelstein got an ordinance like that overturned in 1981 by a late jurist whose name was John King.

According to the ABA Journal's juicy daily reports, a former New Jersey judge, George Kopita has been suspended from his law practice for three months for an incident in which he allegedly told police officers who had arrested him on a drunken driving charge to “get the Vaseline out and bend over." Kopita had the good sense to quit his judicial post, but then wound up copping out to a charge of "threatening a public servant and drunk driving."

The Disciplinary Review Board had recommended only a reprimand on the ground that Korpita’s actions stemmed from his intoxication, but the New Jersey Supreme Court imposed a three-month suspension. No way of knowing whether this lawyer was hammered for the dui or his fighting words, or even a prior act of misconduct.

However, he made the news with his choice comments to the cops, which included such intoxicated overtures as:
(a) “when the cops beat the shit out of a guy, I do the right thing,”... “I'll never take care of cops again,” and (b) “After tonight, I'm done. … Never again, I'm going to stick it up their asses. Get the Vaseline out and bend over."

Heck, in this county we have had former judges pull people over at gunpoint when they did not approve of the left turn another driver was making. But as a non-drinker, I ask you this: When someone is drunk, and looser with their tongue, are they not in fact letting out how they really feel? Should we not rely more on what people say when they are intoxicated for their true feelings then when they are sober and holding back? I would not mind comments on that. N.K.

Bad Lawyer! No Soup for You!

God works wonders now and then;
Behold a lawyer, an honest man.
~ Benjamin Franklin

It has been a bad month for lawyers, according to daily reports coming out of law blogs and newsletters and the ABA journal. And this is just from the first three weeks of January. Somehow, Florida has escaped mention. But you can probably add a contribution of your own.

In Minnesota, criminal defense attorney Charles Alan Ramsay, 41, was jailed overnight while he was trying a case. His arrest on cocaine-possession charges by the Sheriff's office resulted from an on-the-spot investigation after a police investigator witnessed suspicious behavior on Ramsay's part as he exited a courthouse men's room during a hearing recess. Ramsay allegedly had been touching his nose with his hand in a manner that suggested drug use, according to police, and an evidence technician sent into a conference room that he had been using discovered a trace amount of cocaine on the table there. Police then called the County Attorney's office, which in turn called the sheriff's office, which has jurisdiction over the courthouse. After a drug-sniffing dog allegedly alerted to Ramsay's briefcase, a search warrant was executed and cocaine was found in his briefcase, authorities say.

In Illinois, Dave Compton, 60, got popped for smuggling pot to inmates in holding cells at the Cook County Jail. Compton purportedly met with an inmate's girlfriend inside a criminal courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue on Wednesday, where the attorney allegedly participated in "a transaction" with the girlfriend, Angela Bell, who was wearing a wire. Prosecutors say Compton delivered marijuana to inmates in the jail's holding cell multiple times after getting it from Bell.

In Washington, D.C., a grand jury has returned a superseding indictment accusing Arent Fox partner Joseph Price and two other men of conspiring to conceal the “true circumstances” of the fatal stabbing of a lawyer at Price's DuPont Circle home. The superseding indictment charges Price, his domestic partner Victor Zaborsky and their friend Dylan Ward with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and evidence tampering, Legal Times reports.

In Ohio, a former lawyer who admitted faking her kidnapping has been sentenced to four years in prison for theft. Karyn McConnell Hancock admitted taking more than $624,000 from 23 clients. She pleaded guilty to aggravated theft last November, then hiding out to cover up her culpability. She gave up her law license last January.

In Arizona, a bankruptcy lawyer who formerly worked as a prosecutor in South Dakota reportedly has been charged with manslaughter in a stabbing case.
Details are sketchy, but KPHO, a local CBS News affiliate, reports that a manslaughter indictment against Daniel Gukeisen, 37, who operates a bankruptcy firm in Tempe, was announced this month by the Maricopa County Attorney's office.

In Texas, a Dallas law firm will pay $840,000 in restitution as a result of a fake accident scam that authorities say was run without the owner’s knowledge. The firm Trey Allen has already paid $200,000 of the total and will pay the rest over the next five years, the Dallas Morning News reports. Authorities say the firm’s owner, John H. Allen III, wasn’t aware of the activities of his legal assistant, "Tommy" Tung Tran, who pleaded guilty in the insurance scam, the newspaper says.

Also in Texas, already facing an unprecedented criminal case concerning his alleged harassment of his former case manager, U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent was federally indicted a second time on new sex charges relating to his alleged mistreatment of another court worker. He is already facing other counts.

In Alabama, a federal judge has ordered the jailing of an Alabama sheriff for violating a court order requiring adequate meals for inmates. The sheriff, Greg Bartlett, testified he was able to personally pocket $212,000 in surplus meal money over the last three years under an unusual state system. The law pays sheriffs $1.75 per day for each prisoner they jail and allows them to keep any money that isn’t spent on meals, the AP story says. Well, maybe he is not a lawyer. Who would ever appoint a lawyer sheriff anyway?

In New Jersey, a disbarred lawyer has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $4 million from trust funds for gambling trips to Atlantic City. The state is recommending a 15-year sentence for Michael Rumore when he is sentenced on April 17, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. Rumore pleaded guilty to money laundering and theft last Friday.

Finally, in New York, an elderly 81 year old lawyer, who was disbarred in 2006 faces mandatory jail time for repeatedly representing clients in New York under another attorney's identity. Bertram Brown said he “just did not want to stop practicing law.”

What did Mario Puzo once write in ‘The Godfather:’: ‘A Lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.’

ABA Journal Lists Nation's Best Legal Blogs

In early December, the 2nd Annual ABA Journal Blawg invited readers to select their favorite legal blogs in 10 categories from among the 100 best named by their editors. Each computer could vote for a given blog only once. Voting ended at midnight on Jan. 3.

Many of the top 100 blogs trumpeted the honor on their sites, soliciting votes from their readers in a good-natured competition to win their category. In doing so, they also helped expose their readers to the whole list, which includes some of the smartest, most sophisticated legal analysis on the Web today.

Some voters, unfortunately, looked for ways around the rules. But they didn’t factor in that they were dealing with journalists from Chicago, who know a thing or two about the “vote early and often” syndrome.

Because any online poll can be subject to subterfuge, they instituted a series of checks behind the scenes to make sure only legitimate votes were counted.

For a handful of blogs, multiple votes were cast from the same computer in quick succession. Some of those votes came from blog owners, but others were coming fast and furious from computers overseas that were apparently unconnected to the blogs for which they were voting.

This year, winners in each category get a free pass to ABA TechShow on April 2-4 in Chicago.

The winners are:

NEWS & POLITICS
Above the Law
ATL founder David Lat moved on and up to become managing editor of Breaking Media, the company that hosts ATL and other blogs. But the guy who saw BigLaw’s entertainment potential also saw opportunity in the search for his replacement: Elie Mystal got the job in an “ATL Idol” competition staged on the blog. The guard has changed, but ATL is still law-firm-rumor central, and Lat remains a regular contributor.

CRIME TIME
Defending People
Rather than using his blog to shake his fist at injustice everywhere, Mark Bennett focuses on how lawyers can make their own justice in the courtroom. He shares his philosophies through analogies and anecdotes from his Houston criminal defense practice.

LEGAL THEORY
Jonathan Turley
The George Washington University law professor keeps his posts short, light and entertaining while focusing on outrageous criminal justice and tort stories in the mainstream media (“bizarre” is this blog’s most populated topic). But be sure to click the “continue reading” links to get this constitutional scholar’s take on how these stories will end.

NICHE
Patently-O
We believe Patently-O’s claim that it’s the most popular patent law blog around. Author Dennis Crouch, a law professor at the University of Missouri, has developed a loyal community around summaries of key decisions or patent law cases of interest, as well as a job board and an event calendar. And last time we checked, Patently-O’s Facebook group had more than 800 members.

PLUGGED IN
TechnoLawyer Blog
Created by onetime New York City commercial litigator Neil J. Squillante, TechnoLawyer Blog attempts a New York Times-ish mission to cover “all the legal technology and practice management news that’s fit to blog.” Recurring features include “TechnoEditorials.” The blog is also the home of BlawgWorld, a free annual e-book that showcases essays from influential blogs.

QUIRKY
BabyBarista
Fun from across the pond: An admittedly fictional diary of a junior barrister at the English bar. (Although this blog started in 2006, when BabyB was in pupillage.) It was a sensation from the start, and the London Times picked it up within months of its launch. It’s part soap opera and part snark from an author who’s cheesed off with the legal profession.

CAREERS/PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Temporary Attorney
If you want to succeed in the legal business, you better hope you don’t get mentioned by the author of this blog, who goes by the name “helpme123.” The writer seeks to blow the whistle on “nasty sweatshops, swindling law schools and opportunistic staffing agencies,” especially if the victims are contract attorneys.

J.D.S IN TRAINING
Thank You Ma’am
Blogger Sharon Nichols, a University of Alabama law student, turned her posts on “political commentary and general frivolity” into a book deal. Her Facebook group, I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar, led to a forthcoming book by the same name. Nichols has nearly abandoned political topics, but the grammar of her school’s e-mails to students give her plenty of post fodder.

LexisNexis Legal News & Litigation Report
You get a whole menu of daily law news options—general legal news, insurance law news, environmental law news or news from California and New York—from this high-end podcast. The news, read by various LexisNexis publication editors, is in a headline and summary format that’s easy to play while at your desk or to download by subscription for on-the-go listening.

Search as we might, we could not yet find JAABLOG listed.