The Plea Bargaining Blog

Many in the white collar criminal law community are looking forward to the upcoming movie from Martin Scorsese entitled "The Wolf of Wall Street."  The movie, staring Leonardo DiCaprio, is based on the true story of Jordon Belfort.  Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison in 2003 and ordered to pay $110.4 million in restitution for engaging in an alleged pump and dump stock scheme. Of interest to readers of this blog is an issue that recently arose with regard to Belfort's restitution payments.  From CNN: Despite Belfort's lucrative movie and book deals, and earnings from a new career as a motivational speaker, many of these victims are still waiting for restitution. When Belfort was sentenced in 2003 to four years in prison, Judge John Gleeson ordered him to pay about $110.4 million to a victims fund, in installments equal to 50% of his monthly gross income, after his release from jail. If any major changes in his financial circumstances took place, the per...

Next week is the American Bar Association's second annual International White Collar Crime conference.  This year's event will take place in London, UK on October 7-8, 2013.  The program is below.  A link to the registration materials is here . The ABA Criminal Justice Section and City of London Law Society’s Corporate Crime & Corruption Committee Present the 2013 International White Collar Crime Conference October 7-8, 2013        London, United Kingdom     Hosted at the Offices of Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP Adelaide House, London Bridge Monday, October 7, 2013 – DAY 1 8:00 – 9:00 a.m.              Registration & Coffee/Tea - Meet and Greet 9:00 – 9:15 a.m.              Welcoming Remarks – Mathias Heck , Chair, ABA Criminal Justice Section and Michael Caplan, QC, ...

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about the prison experience of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio.  Nacchio spent 54 months in federal prison after being convicted by a jury of selling $52 million in stock as Qwest's prospects began to deteriorate. Mr. Nacchio spent most of his sentence in two Pennsylvania facilities called camps, the lowest level of security offered by the Bureau of Prisons. There are no bars and no walls around the perimeter. Camp inmates can send emails. But they are awakened in the night for security checks. Phone calls are limited to about 10 minutes a day. Visitors are allowed but only every other weekend and some holidays. Prison experts and former inmates say conditions are less comfortable for white-collar criminals than they were in the 1980s, when media stories about leafy prison camps with sparkling athletic facilities surfaced during the savings-and-loan crisis. They say authorities took down tennis nets in at least one camp and cut ...