A unanimous appeals panel has disbarred a Manhattan attorney for filing fraudulent lawsuits on behalf of the government of Vietnam in a scheme with another attorney to control about $4.5 million in assets that originally belonged to a Vietnamese shipping company.
The lawyer, Richard Zweig, now in his mid-60s, has claimed that he was duped into joining the scheme. Zweig, who began practicing law in 1984 as a second career after a stint in the insurance industry, blamed his conduct on his “lack of sophistication” at the time.
