Showing posts with label Richard Simring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Simring. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2009

News & Notes

1. Prosecutors in Georgia are in hot water about their handling of a prosecution against a criminal defense lawyer. Friends of the blog Tom Withers & Craig Gillen represent the defense lawyer. They were part of the defense team that tried the Savannah case with me a couple years back. Good peeps.

2. Richard Simring's sentencing was postponed. Sad: "Richard B. Simring, a lawyer, was the chief legal officer of Okun Holdings, was also to be sentenced this morning after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering.
However, Payne said he wanted a mental health evaluation conducted of Simring, who has a history of depression and was said to have been under a great deal of family stress at the times the crimes were committed.
A new sentencing date for Simring has not yet been set. Payne said the five years called for under the plea agreement may be appropriate, but said he wanted more information about Simring’s emotional condition."


3. On Agusut 24, 2009, the Third District Court of Appeal will be holding an en banc hearing at Judge Moreno’s courtroom. The building's namesake -- Judge Wilkie Ferguson -- is a former 3rd DCA Judge. From what I understand, the case deals with PIP... UPDATE -- the argument has been cancelled.

4. Supervised release numbers are way up -- from 51,000 on supervision in 1997 to almost 100,000 now.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Richard Simring's co-defendant sentenced to 100 years

That's 50 years less than Mr. Madoff, but still -- that's quite a whopper of a sentence for Edward Okun. (The feds were asking for a 400 year sentence!) Here's the DOJ press release for background. (As an aside, anyone know the largest sentences handed out in this district?)

Okun's co-defendant Richard Simring, who was a rising star here in Miami before this case, is scheduled to be sentenced this Thursday. Simring will get much less -- he pled to one count with a five year maximum and has been cooperating. His role was extremely limited, so hopefully he can avoid jail time.

Interesting papers in the case. Here is Okun's sentencing memo, written by the FPD's office and Barry Pollack -- one of the finest white collar lawyers in the country. And here is the government's memo, in which it asks for 400 years.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

"A rising legal star in Miami agrees to plea bargain involving mail fraud, laundering charges "

That's the headline from the National Law Journal article about Richard Simring. Here's the intro:

A rising Miami legal star and community activist has quietly agreed to a plea deal in which he has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection with his role as in-house counsel to an indicted billionaire businessman. Few in Miami have known that Richard Simring, a former partner at Stroock Stroock & Lavan and Jorden Burt, plead guilty in July in the Eastern District of Virginia and is facing possible suspension of his Florida Bar license. Simring took the plea deal, in which he faces a possible five years in prison and must testify against his former boss, before a grand jury could indict him, according to his lawyer, Brian Tannebaum of Miami's Tannebaum Weiss. "He's taking responsibility for what the government says he did," Tannebaum said. "He didn't want to roll the dice and face…a jury." Simring was charged in connection with his role as chief legal counsel to Ed Okun, a Carmel, Ca., billionaire who operated the "1031 Tax Group." The company was one that specialized in 1031 tax exchanges, a way to defer capital gains taxes by exchanging one investment property for another. U.S. v. Richard Simring, No. 3:08cr00321-REP (E.D. Va.).

Very sad.

UPDATE -- I re-read the article and this struck me:

Simring, according to the information, told Okun that he must stop transferring client funds and that he risked going to jail. In 2007, Simring became aware that Okun was continuing to misappropriate millions from clients and was on the verge of insolvency, according to the information. That's when the Okun resigned and Simring was appointed interim chief executive officer. According to the information, Simring complied with Okun's orders to continue transferring millions of dollars of client money. Simring resigned three days after assuming the role of CEO. Okun's company soon after filed for bankruptcy.

Three days!