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Law.com – Marc S. Dreier on Wednesday sent a confessional letter to the federal judge who will sentence him on Monday (pdf), describing in remarkable detail how he funded the once-admired expansion of Dreier LLP by committing frauds totaling more than $400 million.
Facing a recommendation from the government that he serve the rest of his life in prison but pleading for a measured sentence, Dreier, 59, said his seven-year downward spiral began with a simple theft from a client settlement fund and ended at the point where "I found myself running a massive Ponzi scheme with no apparent way out."
Dreier’s letter was submitted as defense attorney Gerald L. Shargel and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan R. Streeter sent competing memos to Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff taking a dramatically different view of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Bloomberg – Bret Grebow, co-founder of hedge fund HMC International LLC, was sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding investors out of $7.8 million in what prosecutors said was “a classic Ponzi scheme.”
Grebow, of Highland, Florida, was also ordered to forfeit $7.8 million after pleading guilty last year to investment adviser fraud. U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan imposed the sentence. Grebow, 33, faced a maximum prison sentence of five years.
“He was very remorseful,” defense attorney Vincent Gelardi said in an interview after today’s sentencing. “He was young at the time. He lost control of the situation.”
New York Daily News – A federal judge charged with slapping his wife hired a big shot defense attorney as he faces a misdemeanor charge that could land him in the clink.
James Peck, 63, the bankruptcy judge overseeing the breakup of Lehman Brothers, hired Barry Bohrer, a prominent criminal defense lawyer whose clients have included Sam Israel, the hedge fund swindler who went on the lam last summer after faking his own suicide to avoid a 20-year jail term.
Peck, who was briefly assigned to handle the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy until he recused himself in December, told cops when they came to his Park Ave. apartment Saturday afternoon that "I was defending myself."
