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2018: Ex-Justice Dept. lawyer offered to sell secret U.S. whistleblower lawsuits to targets
Public Safety
Ex-Justice Dept. lawyer offered to sell secret U.S. whistleblower lawsuits to targets of the complaints
By Spencer S. Hsu
Jan. 25, 2018 at 6:30 a.m. EST
Jeffrey Wertkin had a plot to bring in business and impress his new partners after joining one of Washington's most influential law firms.
As a former high-stakes corporate-fraud prosecutor with the Department of Justice, he had secretly stockpiled sealed lawsuits brought by whistleblowers. Now, he would sell copies of the suits to the very targets of the pending government investigations — and his services to defend them.
Wertkin carried out his plan for months, right up until the day an FBI agent arrested him in a California hotel lobby.
The 41-year-old partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in the District was caught wearing a wig and fake mustache trying to peddle a sealed federal lawsuit for $310,000 to a Silicon Valley technology company. "My life is over," he told the undercover agent after his arrest at an intended cash drop at the Cupertino hotel.
How Wertkin morphed from a leading Justice Department fraud litigator to well-paid white-collar defense lawyer to a confessed felon is not fully revealed in court files, and his transformation still confounds several associates who worked with him on federal cases and recalled him as conscientious and dedicated.
His sentencing is scheduled for March in San Francisco.
{snip}
He faces sentencing March 7 before U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco.
Alice Crites contributed to this report
Spencer Hsu
Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy Award nominee. Hsu has covered homeland security, immigration, Virginia politics and Congress. Follow https://twitter.com/hsu_spencer
Ex-Justice Dept. lawyer offered to sell secret U.S. whistleblower lawsuits to targets of the complaints
By Spencer S. Hsu
Jan. 25, 2018 at 6:30 a.m. EST
Jeffrey Wertkin had a plot to bring in business and impress his new partners after joining one of Washington's most influential law firms.
As a former high-stakes corporate-fraud prosecutor with the Department of Justice, he had secretly stockpiled sealed lawsuits brought by whistleblowers. Now, he would sell copies of the suits to the very targets of the pending government investigations — and his services to defend them.
Wertkin carried out his plan for months, right up until the day an FBI agent arrested him in a California hotel lobby.
The 41-year-old partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in the District was caught wearing a wig and fake mustache trying to peddle a sealed federal lawsuit for $310,000 to a Silicon Valley technology company. "My life is over," he told the undercover agent after his arrest at an intended cash drop at the Cupertino hotel.
How Wertkin morphed from a leading Justice Department fraud litigator to well-paid white-collar defense lawyer to a confessed felon is not fully revealed in court files, and his transformation still confounds several associates who worked with him on federal cases and recalled him as conscientious and dedicated.
His sentencing is scheduled for March in San Francisco.
{snip}
He faces sentencing March 7 before U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco.
Alice Crites contributed to this report
Spencer Hsu
Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy Award nominee. Hsu has covered homeland security, immigration, Virginia politics and Congress. Follow https://twitter.com/hsu_spencer
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