Lawyer accused of seeking Israeli hackers to obtain judge's personal emails
A California lawyer is accused of planning to hire Israeli hackers to access the personal email and phone accounts of a judge who later ordered him to disgorge $1.65 million in attorney fees. (Image from Shutterstock)
A California lawyer is accused of planning to hire Israeli hackers to access the personal email and phone accounts of a judge who later ordered him to disgorge $1.65 million in attorney fees.
According to a June 6 notice of disciplinary charges, attorney Michael Jacob Libman of Tarzana, California, sought the help of New York lawyer Paul Paradis, who turned out to be a confidential FBI informant directed to record his phone calls and meetings with Libman.
The Daily Journal has the story on the charges, filed by the State Bar of California’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel.
Libman wanted Paradis to share the costs of hacking the judge, Judge Elihu Berle, and a lawyer appointed by Berle in April 2019 to serve as a new class counsel in a lawsuit partly brought by Libman. The new class counsel targeted by Libman was Brian S. Kabateck.
Libman allegedly asked Paradis to use encrypted messaging, to obtain burner phones and to buy “shotguns and some high-power rifles” for him.
In April 2020, according to the charges, Libman contacted an Israeli hacker identified as “Ben,” who was said to be affiliated with an Israeli company called “Black Cube.” The company is largely run by former officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies, according to a prior report.
Libman allegedly told Paradis that besides hacking, Ben could provide “human intel on the ground.”
Berle had appointed Kabateck as a new class counsel after revelations that Paradis recruited Libman and another lawyer to file the allegedly collusive class action suit against the city of Los Angeles for billing errors affecting utility customers. Berle directed Kabateck to evaluate the settlement in the case for fairness.
When Paradis recruited Libman to file suit, Paradis was representing the city in a separate suit against the company that configured and implemented the billing system. Paradis allegedly prepared the suit filed by Libman, which settled on terms advantageous to the city, according to prior ethics allegations filed in March against Libman.
Libman “was convinced that Judge Berle and Kabateck, not him, were involved in inappropriate conduct, including but not limited to, failing to disclose inappropriate connections between them,” the notice of disciplinary charges alleged. Libman “sought to expose Judge Berle and Kabateck’s conduct by creating a plan to hack into Judge Berle and Kabateck’ s personal emails and phone accounts.”
Lawyers for Libman denied the charges in an email sent to the Daily Journal.
“Although Mr. Libman is a citizen of both the U.S. and Israel, Mr. Libman denies in the strongest possible words that he has any affiliation with Israeli military intelligence or cyber espionage agencies or agents as suggested by the state bar’s absurd accusation, including Mossad,” the statement provided to the Daily Journal said. “Also, Mr. Libman was not involved in any way in actual ‘hacking’ or purchase or ownership of illegal firearms.”
According to the Daily Journal, Libman is represented by California lawyers Stephen Yagman and Kevin P. Gerry and Georgia lawyer Megan E. Zavieh.
