Attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, famous for winning billions of dollars from the big tobacco companies, has pleaded guilty to charges of trying to bribe a Mississippi judge.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Scruggs entered his plea this morning during a court hearing in Oxford, Miss.
Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, the paper reported.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map 
(requires Java)
Scruggs, who is the brother-in-law of former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., faced a much longer sentence if convicted at trial.
Scruggs and four other people, including his son and law partner David Zachary Scruggs, were charged last November with conspiring to pay a state judge $40,000 in cash in exchange for a favorable ruling in a case over disputed legal fees.
Sidney A. Backstrom, a law partner of Mr. Scruggs, also entered a guilty plea Friday, The Journal reported. The government is recommending up to 2 1/2 years in his case.
Timothy R. Balducci and Steven A. Patterson, the other two defendants, had earlier entered guilty pleas. Zachary Scruggs has not entered a plea.
According to the indictment, Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey of Mississippi cooperated with FBI agents to help document the bribery scheme after he was approached by Balducci, a lawyer acting on Scruggs’ behalf.
Lackey was presiding over a case in which Scruggs had been sued by another law firm for more than $26.5 million in attorneys’ fees related to Hurricane Katrina insurance claims.
According to the indictment, Scruggs hoped to influence the judge’s ruling in this case.
Balducci allegedly gave the judge three cash payments totaling $40,000.
In a conversation reported in the indictment, Balducci allegedly told Lackey: “It ain’t but three people in the world that know anything about this…and two of them are sitting here and the other one…the other one, uh, being Scruggs.”
Lackey was presiding over a civil suit that had been filed by the law firm of Jones, Funderburg, Seesums, Peterson & Lee against Scruggs, the Scruggs Law Firm and other plaintiffs.
The Jones firm had participated with Scruggs in a successful post-Katrina suit against State Farm Insurance. The firm disputed Scruggs’ division of $26.5 million in attorney’s fees.
Scruggs, who is a native of the Gulfport community of Pascagoula, Miss., and a graduate of the University of Mississippi Law School, first made millions in asbestos-related suits filed on behalf of workers in the shipbuilding industry.
In the 1990s, he led a suit against tobacco companies that gained almost $250 billion in a 1998 settlement. Scruggs’ firm was said to have received $1 billion.
The movie, The Insider, looked at the tobacco case and the involvement of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand.
Scruggs and his wife, Diane, have contributed heavily to political candidates. This year he has donated to the presidential campaigns of Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and to Sen. Joe Biden, a Democratic.
Scruggs had been released on $100,000 bail.
John W. Keker, a San Francisco lawyer, has represented him in this case.
Keker prosecuted Oliver L. North in the Iran-Contra scandal. He has represented many high profile clients, including Andrew S. Fastow, Enron’s chief financial officer and Frank Quattrone, a Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment