The Plea Bargaining Blog

The Miami Herald is reporting that the son of an ex-CIA spy has agreed to testify against his father as part of a plea agreement that may prevent the son serving any prison time for taking money from Russian agents. Nathaniel Nicholson pleaded guilty this week to engaging in a conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Jim Nicholson was the highest-ranking CIA official ever convicted of espionage when he pleaded guilty in 1997 to a conspiracy charge that sent him to prison for more than 23 years. He had been accused of selling information to the Russians about the CIA agents he trained and passing along other secrets. Both Nicholsons were indicted in January on new charges of conspiracy, money laundering and acting as an agent of a foreign government. Jim Nicholson was accused of sending his son back to his Russian handlers from 2006 to 2008 to squeeze more money out of them. Under the plea agreement, the 25-year-old Nicholson ad...

James Davis, former CFO of Stanford Bank, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the meltdown of the bank. Davis faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, though his sentence will likely be significantly impacted by his cooperation with the government in the case against Allen Stanford. Here is a portion of a story of the plea from the Houston Chronicle . On the day his one-time boss was hospitalized, former Stanford Financial Group executive James Davis pleaded guilty today to three fraud and conspiracy counts for his role in an alleged $7 billion fraud. R. Allen Stanford, set to appear in court on a different matter, did not make the trip to the Houston federal courthouse from a Conroe jail cell. U.S. District Judge David Hittner said Stanford was found to have an irregular heartbeat and extremely high blood pressure around 5:30 a.m. and was taken to a Conroe hospital for evaluation. Davis' plea agreement has been expected since his attorney sa...