Friday, June 27, 2014

30 months for Russell Adler

Paula McMahon has some good coverage of the sentencing before Judge Cohn:

Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's former law partner Russell Adler was sentenced Friday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for illegally funneling campaign donations to Republican presidential and senate campaigns.

Adler began visibly shaking in court as U.S. District Judge James Cohn announced that he deserved a punishment on the high end of the sentencing guidelines, which recommended incarceration for two to 2 1/2 years.

Adler, 52, of Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale, put his fingers to his eyes and sighed deeply.

Apologizing for his criminal actions, Adler said he regretted that he insisted on having his name added to the law firm's name, making it Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, or RRA.

"Being the A in RRA turned into an ironic curse that has ruined my name and haunts and humiliates me to this day," he told the judge.

Supporters, including Senior Broward Circuit Judge Richard Eade, spoke on Adler's behalf and praised his professionalism, ethics and personal generosity. But Judge Cohn said Adler's crimes were serious and warranted punishment.

When the law firm was "awash with cash" in 2008 and 2009, the judge wondered aloud what Adler – an experienced attorney and name partner – thought was happening.

"Mr. Adler was at the epicenter, he was at ground zero. Was he blind and deaf as to what was going on?" the judge asked.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

off topic, why has JAABlog been down for over 24 hours?

Anonymous said...

guy should've got 10 years

Anonymous said...

disgrace to the whole legal profession

Anonymous said...

I think JAABlog's web address expired and someone bought it. Gelin probably forgot to renew the domain name.

Anonymous said...

I think sentencing somebody based upon supposition....especially when that is not the charge they pled to...sucks.