Font Size: 
Weiss Pleads Not Guilty in Kickback Case, but Lazar Agrees to Plea
New York Law Journal
October 16, 2007
Appearing Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, Milberg Weiss co-founder Melvyn I. Weiss pleaded not guilty to charges that he orchestrated a conspiracy to pay kickbacks to individual plaintiffs in securities class actions.
But while Weiss has pledged to clear his name, one of his few remaining co-defendants prepared to plead guilty. Lawyers for Seymour Lazar, one of the individual plaintiffs who allegedly received kickbacks from Milberg Weiss, said Monday at a status conference that their client, who entered a not guilty plea Monday morning, had reached an agreement with prosecutors.
According to a source familiar with the case, Lazar's plea will be entered Thursday.
Paul Setzer, a former lawyer for Lazar who allegedly facilitated the kickbacks, is also facing charges along with Weiss and the Milberg Weiss firm itself.
Several other people have already pleaded or agreed to plead guilty, including former Milberg Weiss partners William S. Lerach, David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman.
At the status conference Monday, the parties also agreed to push the January trial date to Aug. 12, 2008.
Lawyers for Weiss also said they would be moving to have the case transferred to the Southern District of New York.
Weiss' chief lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, could not be reached for comment but said in a statement Friday that Weiss was looking forward to his day in court, where he intended a vigorous defense and was confident of acquittal.
In a statement also issued Friday, Weiss, who is free on $1.5 million bail, vowed to clear his name and return to his practice, which he said had "established important protections for consumers, shareholders and citizens of this great country."
