A lawyer who once represented a union of about 80 dancers and stagehands at the American Ballet Theatre last week pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of falsifying reports filed on behalf of the Independent Artists of America. Leonard Leibowitz, who appeared before Southern District Judge Denise Cote, faces up to one year in jail when he is sentenced Oct. 14.
According to Southern District U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Mr. Leibowitz wrote union checks totaling more than $350,000 to himself, his law firm, and his ex-wife. In 2007, new union officials learned that Mr. Leibowitz owed the organization $150,000—the difference between the checks he had written and retainers he was paid. The officers also discovered he had forged signatures of former union officers on required annual reports to the U.S. Department of Labor that described the advances to him as “loans.”
