Ex-Baker Partner Pleads Guilty in Stock Scheme, Escrow Switch
A former partner at Baker & McKenzie pleaded guilty on Monday as he was about to go on trial in Brooklyn federal court for earning $1.3 million in interest on $30 million that was supposed to be placed in escrow.
Martin Weisberg, 61, pleaded guilty to money laundering in the escrow case and conspiracy to commit securities fraud in another pending case, report the New York Law Journal and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The second case alleged Weisberg received discounts for selling discounted stock of two client companies when he was a partner at the now dissolved law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist.
Weisberg was a lateral hire at Baker & McKenzie in 2005 from Troutman Sanders.
Under the plea agreement, Weisberg won’t appeal his conviction if his sentence is below 97 months, according to the New York Law Journal.
In a previous case, Weisberg was accused in 1991 in a currency-trading Ponzi scheme, the New York Law Journal says. Weisberg was the only one of seven defendants to win an acquittal.
