That was Akin Gump lawyer and former prosecutor Jeffrey Wertkin after being arrested in disguise trying to sell a sealed complaint to an informer. Sad.
From Bloomberg:
A Washington lawyer at a prominent firm was arrested in a disguise
while trying to sell a copy of a secret lawsuit involving a company that
was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
Jeffrey Wertkin
was picked up Jan. 31 in the lobby of a hotel in Cupertino, California,
where he believed he was about to collect $310,000 for selling the
lawsuit, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Wertkin,
who worked in Washington for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP,
believed he would hand a copy of a complaint to an employee of the
company, which was accused in the complaint by a whistle-blower of
falsely billing the government. Wertkin, who was wearing a wig and using
the name of Dan, was met instead by an FBI agent, according to arrest
documents unsealed on Feb. 6.
Here's the criminal complaint, courtesy of Above the Law.
2 comments:
Sad? I can imagine what the dude's salary was at Akin, but that wasn't enough. Oh no, you gotta sell out a client (a whistle blower at that) to a big corporation for $300K! AND, as a former prosecutor, you gotta be able to sniff out a sting!
I want to see pictures! Wonder if the wig was one of those rainbow afros?
I wonder how he got the complaint. Being Akin Gump, I think it is unlikely they represented the whistleblower. One possibility is that Akin Gump represented one defendant in the case, DOJ got permission to disclose the complaint to that defendant, and this guy was seeking to disclose it to a co-defendant. Courts often permit a "partial unsealing" so DOJ can discuss the substance of the case with a defendant while the case and complaint are still under seal.
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