Lawrence Taggart is no stranger to scandal. For 20 years, the San Diego attorney jumped from company to company as each one found itself embroiled in white-collar crime. He got nailed himself for fraud in 2001 for his role as president and legal adviser to San Diego-based Basic Research Corp., which the government alleged was a sham corporation set up to defraud investors. He reached a plea deal in 2004 and turned government witness against two other defendants.
Yet somehow, on the eve of sentencing, Taggart still had clients to serve. His lawyer, solo practitioner Michael Berg in San Diego, asked federal district court judge Jeffrey Miller for a “lengthy extension” so that Taggart could finish the eight to ten cases he was handling.
