Former Baker & McKenzie LLP partner Martin Weisberg, who admitted to stealing from a client and taking part in a $55 million securities fraud, was sentenced to two years in prison, the U.S. said.
Weisberg, 62, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering in May 2012 after prosecutors alleged he skimmed $1.3 million in interest from an escrow account for a hedge fund client, SIAM Capital Management. Separately, Weisberg joined a scheme to manipulate the stock price of technology firms Xybernaut Corp. and Ramp Corp. prosecutors said.
“Instead of using his talents to provide wise counsel, he lied to and stole from his own clients, lied to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and betrayed the investing public,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, also ordered Weisberg to pay $297,500 in restitution and $250,000 in forfeiture, according to prosecutors.
Weisberg left Baker & McKenzie in October 2007 at the time of his arrest in the securities case. Previously, he had worked at firms including Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, and Shea & Gould, according to a memorandum filed by his lawyers in March.
He graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1975, where he was first in his class, according to the memorandum.
Richard Albert, a lawyer for Weisberg, declined to comment on the sentence.
The case is U.S. v. Saltsman, 07-cr-641, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
To contact the reporter on this story: Christie Smythe in Manhattan at csmythe1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
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