JD Journal » Judaism

Law School Student Should Stick to Law, Give Up Prostitution

Erik Even — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:47:05 +0000

Apparently there’s one Jewish Studies professor who hasn’t bothered to read the Bible.

Yaron Eliav, 44, an associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at The University of Michigan, awaits sentencing after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of using a computer to commit a crime. The crime? Paying a 22-year-old UM Law School student he met online for sex.

The student also pleaded no contest to the same charge.

They pair were originally charged with prostitution/accosting and solicitation, misdemeanors punishable by up to 93 days in jail.

In April, the student went to an Ann Arbor police station to report she was assaulted by Eliav after they met at a hotel on the city’s north side.

The student told police she was advertising sex acts online via Craigslist to help pay tuition costs. For an in-state student, UM Law School tuition is $41,500 a year; out-of-state students pay $44,500.

The student told police she reluctantly agreed to allow Eliav to strike her buttocks with a belt, but got upset when he slapped her in the face twice. She said she suffered vision problems afterward, but did not have any lasting injuries.

Investigators were surprised that the student came to the police to report a crime that took place while committing a crime. Prostitutes with less legal training but more sense tend not to do that.

“Perhaps she should have cracked a legal textbook before coming in to the police station to talk about this,” Ann Arbor Detective Sgt. Richard Kinsey said.

Both she and Eliav told police they didn’t have intercourse, but engaged in other sex acts, and he paid her $300.

Eliav is under investigation by the University.

Via Ann Arbor News.

Judge Questions Dewey & LeBoeuf’s $600 Per Hour

Erik Even — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:40:32 +0000

Manhattan federal judge Denny Chin would like to know how New York City’s Dewey Cheatham & Howe & LeBoeuf can justify charging a $600 hourly rate for associates on a securities lawsuit.

Dewey & LeBoeuf served as reciever for WexTrust Capital in an SEC lawsuit. WexTrust ran a Ponzi scheme that raised $225 million by targeting the Orthodox Jewish community (a popular tactic these days).

Judge Chin froze WexTrust’s assets, and appointed Dewey to serve as receiver. Last month, Dewey submitted an application to collect compensation and expenses for the first twenty or so days it served as receiver. The firm asked for $2.2 million.

G&H Partners, one of the larger creditors in the receivership, objected to the request. Now Chin has asked Dewey & LeBoeuf to justify the amount:

It is difficult to evaluate the reasonableness of the hourly rates for most of the lawyers listed. For example, [five attorneys] — all simply described as “Associate” — have substantial hours billed at hourly rates of, respectively, $605, $605, $550, $605, and $605. Without knowing anything about their backgrounds, it is difficult for the Court to determine whether the requested hourly rates are reasonable. …

While I accept the representations that the requested hourly rates are D&L’s standard hourly rates for the individuals involved, I wonder whether the rates are high for legal services rendered in connection with a securities receivership proceeding. Is it reasonable to bill at hourly rates of $700 to $950 for partners and $425 to $550 to $605 for associates in the context of a securities receivership? Is it reasonable to bill at hourly rates of $285 for summer associates & $175 to $275 for paralegals? Have courts in other receivership cases awarded fees applying such rates?

Dewey & LeBoeuf declined to comment — their mouths were full of Almas caviar while they cavorted on a solid gold yacht.

Via WSJ Law Blog via Patrick Lamb.

Jewish University Loses $110 Million in Madoff Mishegoss

Erik Even — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:07:33 +0000

Yesterday we reported that the Jewish community is a little bit broygez over Bernard L. Madoff’s decision to rip off various Jewish charities for millions of shekels.

Today we learn that New York’s Yeshiva University lost about $110 million in investments made with the gonif Madoff; and a second trustee whose money-management firm had ties with Madoff’s securities business has stepped down.

Madoff was arrested last week and accused of defrauding investors of $50-billion in what has been called “a giant Ponzi scheme.” He resigned as a member of Yeshiva’s Board of Trustees and chairman of its business school after his arrest.

Most of Yeshiva’s losses were invested through hedge funds controlled by that nuchshlepper, J. Ezra Merkin, who was a Yeshiva trustee and chairman of the university’s investment committee. Merkin resigned from both positions on Friday.

Merkin is chair of GMAC Financial Services, but the investment losses are related to a money-management firm that he also runs, Gabriel Partners. In a letter to clients last week, Merkin revealed that one of Gabriel’s funds, Ascot Partners, had invested all of its assets with Madoff and had suffered “major losses.”

The New York Law School, instead of just kvetching, sued Merkin and Ascot Partners today, along with the fund’s auditor. The school said the $3 million it had invested with the fund was now worthless because of the “wrongful conduct” of the defendants.

A lawyer for Merkin said that Merkin himself was a victim “of the massive crime confessed by Bernard L. Madoff” and that he would vigorously defend the lawsuit.

Via The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Madoff’s (Alleged) Crimes Hit Charities Hard

Erik Even — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:21:36 +0000

Altman & Altman’s Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog is unamused by the illegal shenanigans of investor Bernard Madoff:

Ironically, the Defendant’s [Madoff's] gift of restraints and forced government housing was connected to charity and gift work throughout the nation. His actions have apparently brought about the destruction and near-destruction of various charities and philanthropies throughout the country. That’s right… that means fewer gifts for the under-privileged. It also means the same thing for victims of every financial level because they all have one thing in common now. They have been victims of white collar crime in a big way to the tune of approximately fifty billion dollars.

They also find a Boston connection (apart from the Bostonians who have lost their investments to Madoff):

You may be unfamilier with the term “Ponzi scheme”. For those so uninitiated, it is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high profits to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi who apparently introduced the scheme to the United States in the early 1900’s from…of all places…Boston.

The post details some of the charities hard hit by Madoff’s alleged crimes:

The Defendant’s clients include philanthropists Carl and Ruth Shapiro, major donors to the Museum of Fine Arts, Brandeis University, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The Shapiro family foundation lost almost half its money, or about $145 million, to the Defendant.

…the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, a private family organization that financed trips for Jewish youth to Israel for many years, as well as also supporting various Jewish educational and cultural services on the Boston’s North Shore, said it was forced to shut down and lay off employees after losing all of its estimated $8 million to the Defendant

Officials at the New York-based JEHT Foundation, a nonprofit focused on juvenile justice and fair elections, said it was freezing all its grants and would shut down at the end of January. The group gets all its funding from a couple, Jeanne and Kenneth Levy-Church, whose personal investments were managed by the Defendant.

Link.

Dechert Denies Ex-Associate’s Claims

Erik Even — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:49:17 +0000

Former Dechert LLP associate Marc Dubin has sued the firm for allegedly making false promises to lure him to the Philadelphia firm, and for allegedly firing him for being Jewish.

Dubin’s suit seeks nearly $6 million in back pay and damages.

The firm and its counsel at Miller & Wrubel say that every one of Lubin’s claims is false. Dechert says no one lied to Lubin during the interview process in October 2002, and they deny the allegation that Lubin’s religion played a part in his dismissal.

Dechert’s team also says the suit is barred by statute of limitations rules and seven other affirmative defenses.

As for Lubin’s claim that he was a highly sought-after commodity who left a “secure” $215,000 job at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for the chance of more fulfilling work at his new firm, Dechert again challenges the notion. It denies that Lubin’s job at Skadden was actually “secure,” though the firm doesn’t explain how it knows this.

Skadden did not immediately respond to questions about Lubin’s tenure there.

Lubin had been at Skadden since about 1999 after short stints at both Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Latham & Watkins. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1994.

He claims Dechert offered him work on a complex deal involving the securitization of attorneys fees from tobacco litigation. The deal, which he described as “poorly organized” and “in total disarray” by the time he arrived, eventually fell apart, Lubin’s complaint says.

I gotta tell ya, if I could sue ex-employers for giving me a crummy job, I’d be a billionaire.

Via Am Law Daily.

Guess What? I Gave Your Money To Madoff, And Now It’s Gone

Erik Even — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:33:44 +0000

Last week, investment fund manager J. Ezra Merkin sent a very interesting letter to investors in his Ascot Partners fund.

In the letter he just happened to mention that he might have accidentally given a very small amount of the investor’s money to Bernard L. Madoff. Not very much. Just almost the entire $1.8 billion.

Merkin’s investors may also have noticed that Madoff was arrested last week for losing all of his investors’ money in a massive Ponzi scheme.

Now Merkin’s investors are a tad upset, especially since Merkin had provided investors with a detailed investment plan. And that plan somehow failed to mention “or I’ll just give all your cash to Madoff.”

The Ascot Partners investors are now planning to sue Merkin back to the Stone Age, although the agreement they signed with Merkin specifies that he has the right to give money to “third party managers.” But investors are asking why they bothered to pay Merkin anything, if all he was going to do was give the money to Madoff.

Clients also claim they had conversations with Merkin about Madoff, at no point during which did Merkin mention “oh yeah, I gave that guy all your money.”

New York’s Yeshiva University invested $100 million in the fund, and now the Jewish community is out for Merkin’s head. If only religious Jews like Merkin had some sort of book that would school them in ethical behavior.

Speculation is rampant on what Merkin was doing all day while supposedly managing his clients’ money. I suggest that maybe he was soloing Zul’Gurub with his level 80 Death Knight.

Via NYT and The Jewish Week.