April 29, 2006

Howard Vogel has pled guilty to perjury for falsely representing he hadn't been paid kickbacks to serve as a lead plaintiff in securities class action litigation; his plea agreement acknowledges receiving $2.5 million from "a New York law firm." Vogel and family members were Milberg Weiss's clients and lead plaintiff in forty securities class actions, and the firm confirms to the Times that it's the one in the agreement. According to Vogel, kickbacks were funneled through an intermediary law firm or distributed with envelopes of cash (in which case the firm would pay him less because he could hide the cash from taxes). (Nathan Koppel, "Ex-Client Ties Old Milberg Firm In Kickback Plea", Wall Street Journal, Apr. 29; Julie Creswell, "Case Turns Toward Law Firm", New York Times, Apr. 29).