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3. Former DOJ lawyer faces disbarment for entanglement…

Ethics

Former DOJ lawyer faces disbarment for entanglement in ‘one of the largest kleptocracy schemes in history’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 17, 2025, 3:07 pm CDT

A lawyer who worked for the U.S. Department of Justice is facing disbarment after pleading guilty for his role in an illegal foreign influence scheme that allegedly stemmed from his friendship and legal work for hip-hop artist Prakazrel “Pras” Michel.

Lawyer George A. Higginbotham, a former senior congressional affairs specialist at the DOJ, prepared fake loan documents, investment agreements and consulting agreements to hide the source of tens of millions of dollars intended to be used to lobby the U.S. government, according to the April 16 opinion by the Appellate Division’s Second Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court.

The Legal Profession Blog published highlights.

Higginbotham’s work was intended to facilitate lobbying for the extradition of a political dissident to China and to resolve an investigation of a foreign national who orchestrated a multibillion-dollar embezzlement scheme involving a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Higginbotham was working on behalf of Michel, who wanted help with his dealings with the foreign national, Jho Low, according to Higginbotham’s testimony, as reported by Reuters, at Michel’s trial in April 2023.

Higginbotham entangled himself in a conspiracy to avoid prosecution “in one of the largest kleptocracy schemes in history,” the appeals court said. “Anything less than a disbarment is unwarranted.”

Higginbotham pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to a bank in November 2018, according to a press release. He did not influence any aspect of the DOJ investigation involving the investment company known as 1MDB.

Higginbotham was sentenced to probation in November 2023 and ordered to forfeit $70,000, the amount of money that he was paid after submitting invoices for work in the scheme.

Michel was convicted of conspiracy and other charges in April 2023 for using straw donors in the lobbying campaign.

Low was convicted and sentenced in absentia to 10 years in a Kuwaiti prison, the New York Post reported in March 2023.

See also:

Despite lyrics mistake by AI, lawyer wasn’t ineffective for using tech in rapper’s case, federal judge says

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3. SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein faces tax…

Tax Law

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein faces tax evasion charges

By Amanda Robert and Lee Rawles

January 16, 2025, 3:58 pm CST

Updated: SCOTUSblog publisher and co-founder Tom Goldstein was indicted on federal tax evasion charges Thursday.

Between 2016 and 2022, Goldstein allegedly schemed to “evade the assessment of taxes, file false tax returns and fail to pay his tax obligations when they were due,” according to the indictment, which was filed in the District of Maryland. The 22-count indictment lists four counts of tax evasion; 10 counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns; five counts of willful failure to pay taxes; and three counts relating to false statements on mortgage loan applications.

Law360 has coverage.

Goldstein was described as an “ultrahigh-stakes poker player” and allegedly took millions of dollars from his boutique law firm, Goldstein & Russell, to pay personal debts, including gambling debts, the indictment said. He also underreported his gambling winnings by millions of dollars.

Goldstein announced his retirement from his U.S. Supreme Court practice and his firm, which was in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2023. At the time, he cited the increasingly conservative balance of the court as one of the reasons.

He said he would continue to publish the blog that he co-founded, SCOTUSblog, which features reporting by his wife, Amy Howe, who’s also a co-founder.

Past ABA Journal coverage also noted that Goldstein is a “formidable” poker player who once won $100,000 in an 18-hour game at the Bellagio. In 2009, the Journal included Goldstein in its inaugural class of Legal Rebels.

According to the indictment, Goldstein also allegedly was involved in intimate relationships with a least a dozen women from 2016 to 2022, and he created “sham employment arrangements” for several of those women.

The indictment said he transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to them for travel and other expenses, and to supplement those payments, he “hired” them as employees at his firm.

They received salaries and health insurance despite performing little to no work for the firm, the indictment said.

Among the other details alleged in the indictment:

• In 2014, Goldstein approached a former client, a California-based billionaire, for a $10 million loan to support his gambling activities. The businessman “agreed to do so but required Goldstein to sign a promissory note memorializing the loan and Goldstein’s obligation to repay” and “by the end of 2022, Goldstein still owed more than $8.89 million.”

• In a series of poker games in Beverly Hills in 2016, Goldstein won $26,435,000. The same year, he also lost millions and sent $1,171,600 via wire transfers from the Goldstein & Russell bank accounts to satisfy “four gambling debt payments and two promissory note payments.” The firm manager was not told that these were personal debts, “resulting in those transfers being falsely classified as ‘Legal Fee[]’ expenses” of the firm.

• In 2017, Goldstein had a $250,000 legal fee owed by an unnamed law firm to Goldstein & Russell “in connection with G&R’s Supreme Court briefing in a securities class action case” deposited to a personal bank account he used for gambling. According to the indictment, Goldstein did not have his firm manager prepare an invoice for the $250,000, and “he did not tell anyone at G&R or the accounting firm that he had diverted the G&R fee to his gambling account, or that he had used it to satisfy a personal poker debt.”

• Also in 2017, a second unnamed law firm and a named partner at that law firm agreed to “invest” $500,000 in return for a share of Goldstein’s winnings from a series of poker matches against a California businessman. However, “the overall result of the matches during that period was that Goldstein lost more than $16 million,” and the law firm demanded its $500,000 be returned. Payments were transferred to the law firm from the Goldstein & Russell accounts, but the Goldstein & Russell firm manager was not told they were personal gambling-related debts.

• After a 2018 trip to Macau, China, Goldstein landed at Dulles International Airport with a duffel bag holding $968,000 in cash. He told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer that these were gambling winnings, but failed to report it as such on his 2018 taxes.

• In 2019, Goldstein represented a foreign gambler whom he had previously played poker against, “in connection with certain court proceedings in Macau.” He was paid $235,000 for that legal work, but when the money was deposited into his firm’s bank account, it “was not reported as legal fee income,” and Goldstein allegedly asked his accounts to make sure the money was “classified as a reduction to shareholder distributions.”

• During 2020 and 2021, Goldstein allegedly conducted some 280 cryptocurrency transactions worth more than $9.5 million. Despite this, on both years’ tax forms, he answered “no” when asked whether he had made any virtual currency transactions.

• In 2021, when applying for a mortgage for a $2.65 million home in Washington, D.C, Goldstein “falsely omitted more than $15,500,000 that he owed in personal debts and federal taxes.”

CNBC reports that Goldstein has hired attorneys John Lauro of Lauro & Singer and Christopher Kise of Continental Attorneys-at-Law to represent him. Lauro and Kise have appeared in previous media coverage in connection with their representation of President-elect Donald Trump.

In a statement to CNBC, Kise and Lauro said: “Mr. Goldstein is a prominent attorney with an impeccable reputation. We are deeply disappointed that the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts. Our client intends to vigorously contest these charges, and we expect he will be exonerated at trial.”

An email sent by the ABA Journal to Goldstein’s SCOTUSblog address was returned as undeliverable.

Last updated on Jan. 17 to correct a reference to John Lauro’s law firm.

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A YouTube star from Texas is facing aggravated kidnapping charges for abducting two women and taking them on a wild, high-speed car ride on Interstate 10 — during which he threatened the victims with a gun and began praying with them — before dumping the pair off on the shoulder and telling them, “This is your only opportunity.”

Corey Pritchett Jr., 26, of Houston, is accused of fleeing to Qatar after the alleged kidnapping incident, which unfolded on Nov. 24, according to his criminal complaint, which was filed in Harris County and viewed by Law&Crime Monday. The victims were found by deputies with the Waller County Sheriff’s Office near a weigh station off I-10 in the Brookshire area after a local resident saw the women on the side of the road and called 911.

Pritchett, who has over 5 million subscribers across his two YouTube channels — one for his personal videos, @CoreySSG31, and another for family posts with his wife and two children, @Pritchettfamily — allegedly dumped the pair there after meeting them at a Houston-area gym earlier in the day to work out. They also went on an ATV outing together with some friends of his and spent time at a local bowling alley, according to the complaint, before things eventually took a dark turn.

A vote is expected next week to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt of Congress after he refused to appear at a hearing this week despite being subpoenaed to testify. This follows a nearly two-year CBS News investigation into how private equity investors and de la Torre siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from Steward hospitals. Dr. Jon LaPook has more.

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3. 7th Circuit nominee faces questions about…

Judiciary

7th Circuit nominee faces questions about motions backlog

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 25, 2024, 3:33 pm CDT

A nominee to a federal appeals court based in Chicago defended her record as a district judge when Republican senators criticized her case backlogs during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois has the seventh-highest backlog of motions pending for at least six months among all federal judges at the trial level, Republicans said during the hearing. She currently has 125 pending motions.

Law360, Courthouse News Service and Reuters have coverage.

Maldonado has been nominated to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago. If confirmed, she would be the first Hispanic judge on the 7th Circuit.

Maldonado’s motions backlog is worse than any other district judge in the 7th Circuit, Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said during the hearing. According to Reuters, Kennedy asked: “You really think of all the other district judges in the 7th Circuit, you’re the one that ought to be promoted based on this record?”

Maldonado said she was assigned about 300 cases with pending motions when she became a federal judge in August 2022, and her caseload increased to 360 after the retirement of three judges.

Maldonado said she is “a very involved judge,” according to coverage by Law360. “I go back and forth with my law clerks on drafts. It’s not sometimes the most rapid process,” she said.

Maldonado has been rated well qualified by the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

A Michigan man who bragged, “I just stormed the f—— capitol building and helped kick down the chamber door” during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack has been arrested in connection with the insurrection, authorities said.

Barry Allen Toth, 35, is charged with a felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding and several misdemeanors, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

A one-time New York City Council candidate and anti-vaxxer confronted officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, then bragged to a witness it was “men being men,” authorities said.

Mitchell Bosch, 44, is charged with felony offenses of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

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3. Judge faces potential discipline for allowing…

Judiciary

Judge faces potential discipline for allowing secretary to work remotely

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 8, 2024, 9:55 am CST

An ethics complaint alleges that a New Jersey judge abused the power of his office by allowing his secretary to work remotely in violation of office policy.

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct accused Judge Douglas H. Hurd in a Jan. 30 ethics complaint, Law.com reports. He is the civil presiding judge in the Mercer vicinage in Trenton, New Jersey.

According to the ethics complaint, courts were working remotely beginning in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the judiciary resumed in-person operations, it instituted a policy in September 2021 that allowed one day weekly of remote work for eligible staff members who obtained approval. The policy was updated in April 2022 to allow two days of remote work each week.

Judges, secretaries of judges and judicial law clerks were not eligible for remote work, however.

Hurd’s secretary, identified as “L.C.” in the ethics complaint, moved out of New Jersey in 2021 and obtained an exemption from a residency requirement. She began working remotely “on a periodic basis,” with Hurd’s “knowledge and consent,” when the remote work policy began in September 2021, the ethics complaint said. She continued to work remotely until December 2022.

When Hurd was interviewed by advisory committee staff members, he acknowledged that L.C. worked remotely for about six months in 2022 and he authorized it, thinking that he had the power to do so.

The ethics complaint alleges that Hurd abused the power and prestige of his office to benefit his secretary, demonstrated an inability to conform his conduct to the high standards expected of judges, and failed to act in a manner that promoted public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

A person who identified himself as Hurd’s law clerk told the ABA Journal that the judge had no comment at this point.

Prosecutors in Oklahoma are pursuing capital punishment for a 20-year-old man accused of raping and killing his ex-girlfriend inside her family’s pool house last year.

The Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office this week formally filed documents in court declaring their intention to seek the death penalty for Chace Cook in the slaying of 18-year-old star high school basketball player Madeline “Maddie” Bills, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

Cook was arrested last May and charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree rape in the fatal attack on Bills, which took place on April 22, 2023.

“Our office filed a Bill of Particulars for the Death Penalty against Defendant Chace Cook. The decision to seek the death penalty was not made lightly,” the DA’s office said in a news release after the filing was submitted. “After reviewing the evidence of the case and speaking to the family, it is our position that the death penalty is a fair and just punishment to seek in light of this defendant’s crimes. Our priority is to seek justice for Madeline Bills, and our hearts go out to her family and friends as they continue to grieve.”

In the filing, the state claims there is enough evidence to prove the requisite aggravating factors for capital punishment, including that the alleged crime was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,” Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV reported.

The victim’s family reportedly also released a statement in support of the DA pursuing capital punishment.

“We fully support their decision to seek the death penalty for the defendant. We believe that this is an appropriate sentence given the heinous nature of the crime and the devastating impact on our family and community.”

As previously reported by Law&Crime, Bills had once confided in friends that because “she was so scared of [Cook]” and feared “he would come to harm her,” she had “planned to sleep inside the main residence” at her home rather than in the converted pool house where the family later found her dead.

An affidavit said Cook voluntarily offered an alibi, claiming he was in Galveston, Texas, from April 16 to April 23 for training to become a Navy SEAL “in the ocean.” Authorities said that the purported alibi quickly unraveled, and they indicated it didn’t take much research to poke holes in the story.

“He further advised he traveled to Galveston this was an approximately 2 1/2 to 3-hour drive from the Oklahoma City area to Galveston, TX,” the affidavit said. “It should be noted that the drive from Oklahoma City to Galveston is over 7 hours, according to Google Maps.”

Cops said the interview ended when the suspect asked for a lawyer. That allegedly happened after investigators told Cook they had proof he was in the area when and where the crimes occurred.

A neighbor’s surveillance video allegedly showed a black Ford Fusion in the neighborhood and a suspect climbing the fence into the victim’s backyard. Investigators allegedly have evidence, too, that will prove Cook’s cellphone was “in the area of the victim’s residence” when the murder took place.

The Moore Police Department said that the Ford Fusion in question is the same vehicle stopped in February because the driver, Cook, wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

Authorities believe that Cook is the individual who climbed the fence — first at 4:38 a.m. and then again at 6:42 a.m. on April 22.

Investigators also found a video on the defendant’s cellphone that allegedly shows Cook raping Bills, who was described as appearing “unconscious” in the video.

“Cook’s DNA matched the DNA obtained from swabs taken during the initial on-scene investigation and during the autopsy of the victim,” the affidavit said.

An obituary for Madeline Bills said that the member of the Osage Tribe “made an incredible impact on many lives” and “strove to see the good in people.”

A high school senior with a 4.0 GPA, Bills had “recently signed a letter of intent to play women’s basketball at Northeastern A&M in Miami, Oklahoma, in the fall under Coach Jim Rowland.”

Matt Naham contributed to this report.

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3. Missing faces on Reese’s Halloween candy…

Consumer Law

Missing faces on Reese’s Halloween candy targeted in would-be class action

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 5, 2024, 8:51 am CST

Reese’s labeling portrays its specially shaped chocolate peanut butter products as pumpkins, ghosts, bats and footballs, but the carved chocolate designs shown on the package are not on the candies, according to a $5 million proposed class action lawsuit.

The Russo Firm filed the Dec. 28 lawsuit in federal court in the Middle District of Florida. It alleges that the “materially inaccurate” product photos violate Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Consumers “have been tricked and misled” by the pictures on the product packaging, the suit says, citing and linking to consumer videos posted to YouTube. One reviewer, for example, said she expected the candy to have a jack-o-lantern face, but it actually looked like “a chocolate blob” and “a giant turd.”

Another YouTube reviewer held up the package, along with the actual contents, calling the candy a “monstrosity.” After taking a bite of the candy, he adds, “And the most annoying thing about it is it’s quite nice. It’s a nice peanut butter little chocolate bar snack.”

The suit says Reese’s changed its Halloween-shaped candy packaging two or three years ago. Before the company accurately portrayed the shaped product. But now, the pictures show carvings on the candy “to boost sales and revenues,” the suit alleges.

The Washington Post covered the case and contacted candymaker the Hershey Co. for comment. A spokesperson told the Washington Post that the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The case is Kelly v. the Hershey Co.