Did Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz bill $1 million worth of hours on an internal National Basketball Association investigation that the firm has yet to make public? That’s what a letter filed in federal district court Tuesday by the lawyer for former league referee Timothy Donaghy suggests.
The league probably didn’t think that Donaghy would be the biggest story to emerge during the NBA Finals. The 13-year NBA referee resigned in July 2007 after being caught up in an FBI sting into gambling and organized crime resulting in his arrest. Soon after, Donaghy began cooperating with federal prosecutors. In August 2007, he pled guilty to two felony fraud charges. He revealed that he had gambled thousands of dollars on games he refereed in order to influence their outcome and pay down his debts.
