2-Month Sentence for Lawyer on Sidelines of Milberg Kickbacks Case
Although prosecutors sought probation for a former name partner at a California entertainment law boutique, a federal judge gave Richard Purtich a two-month sentence yesterday for helping another law firm secretly pay kickbacks to a mutual client.
Purtich, while working at King, Holmes, Paterno & Berliner, helped the New York City-based law firm now known as Milberg funnel $2.6 million to longtime client Steven Cooperman between 1992 and 1996, recounts the Daily Journal (sub. req.). Purtich pleaded guilty in 2006 to impeding the Internal Revenue Service in its collection of taxes.
As discussed in previous ABAJournal.com posts, the Milberg firm, as well as some of its former senior partners, were accused by federal prosecutors of participating in a scheme to pay secret kickbacks to plaintiffs in the securities class action cases for which the law firm is known. The law firm acknowledged wrongdoing and agreed in June to pay a $75 million fine to settle the case, but it did not plead guilty.
Several other unidentified lawyers who also acted as intermediaries were not charged, assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Robinson told U.S. District Judge John Walter. However, Purtich got into trouble by mischaracterizing the Milberg payments in an earlier, unrelated court case.
Prosecutors had sought no prison time, saying that the 56-year-old, an early cooperating witness who has recently been working as a contract paralegal, had suffered enough.
Still awaiting sentencing in the Milberg case are, in September, Howard Vogel, another lawyer who received kickbacks; in October, Steven Schulman and David Bershad, two former name partners of Milberg; and, in November, attorney Paul Selzer, who was formerly a partner at Best Best & Krieger.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Counsel Explains Why Milberg Settled: Law Firm Survival”
