The attorneys of Pietragallo’s White Collar Criminal Defense practice group are experienced in all aspects of white collar criminal defense matters and investigations.
Jeffrey Wertkin, a former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP partner who previously had worked at the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), received 30 months’ imprisonment for offenses related to his theft and attempted sale of a sealed government whistleblower complaint to a cyber-security company being investigated by the DOJ. The sentence was at the low end of Wertkin’s 30-37-month range under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and far more than the year-and-a-day sentence that his attorney had requested.
The Rundown
In November 2017, Wertkin pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to two counts of obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1505; and one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314. As he transitioned from his role as a civil prosecutor at the DOJ to Akin Gump’s Washington D.C. office, Wertkin stole approximately 40 sealed complaints. In November 2016, he cold-called general counsel at a Silicon Valley company and left a voicemail offering to provide information about a complaint that implicated the company for a fee. The general counsel called the FBI, and, after a series of monitored phone calls with the general counsel, Wertkin – dressed in a wig and sunglasses – was arrested in a Sunnyvale, California hotel, at which he intended to exchange the complaint for more than $300,000 in cash.
In a lengthy and well-crafted sentencing memorandum, Wertkin’s counsel, Cristina Arguedas of Arguenda Cassman & Headley LLP focused on his undiagnosed anxiety and depression, the personal struggles caused by a taxing career, the aberrant nature of his misconduct, and the steps he had taken towards rehabilitation, including his cooperation and his embrace of mental health treatment. Arguedas submitted 85 character letters on Wertkin’s behalf.
In its filing, the government, which requested a mid-guidelines sentence of 34 months, focused its attention on Wertkin’s position of public trust when he stole the complaints and the continuing nature of his course of conduct. At the sentencing hearing, the government keyed in on the number of potential victims, noting that, after being charged, Wertkin had staged his office at Akin Gump to make it look as though the complaints had been mailed to him by the DOJ. That act of obstruction initiated an investigation into blameless DOJ attorneys.
The Take Away
Though crediting Wertkin’s struggles with mental health issues and his significant support from the community, the Court fashioned a guidelines sentence. Among other factors, the need for general deterrence weighed heavily on the Court. While Wertkin, who had forfeited his law license, would never engage in this kind of activity again, the Court had to send a message that these matters are taken seriously.
In a joint press release by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and representatives from the FBI, Postal Inspectors and Federal Trade Commission, it was announced that the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history was conducted related over half a billion dollars in losses. The cases included criminal, civil and forfeiture actions across more than 50 federal districts. The fraud schemes took a variety of forms from mass-mailing, telemarketing and investment fraud schemes to individual incidents of identity theft and theft by guardians and caretakers. Many of the cases involved transnational criminal organizations that defrauded hundreds of thousands of elderly victims but other schemes involved a single relative or guardian who took advantage of an individual victim.
Actions by the federal government involved the following:
Mass-mailing fraud industry: DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch worked in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, brought cases against over 40 mass-mailing fraud operators, including criminal charges against six individuals. Law enforcement executed search warrants at 14 premises from Las Vegas to Florida, even coordinating with Vancouver Police in Canada, who executed over 20 search warrants.
Other elder law fraud schemes were targeted by DOJ’s Fraud Section and the Consumer Protection Branch involved a variety of schemes including “lottery phone scams,” in which callers convince seniors that a fee or tax must be paid before they can receive lottery winnings; “grandparent schemes” which convince seniors that a grandchild has been arrested and needs bail money; and “IRS imposter schemes” which defraud seniors by bad actors posing as IRS agents and claiming that victims owe back taxes.
Beyond the historic number of defendants targeted, the sweep was also noteworthy due to the degree of coordination between United States and foreign law enforcement. General Sessions announced that the sweep benefited greatly from the work of the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group (IMMFWG), a network of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies from a variety of nations including Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
For the Record
Attorney General Sessions: “The Justice Department and its partners are taking unprecedented, coordinated action to protect elderly Americans from financial threats, both foreign and domestic … when criminals steal the hard-earned life savings of older Americans, we will respond with all the tools at the Department’s disposal – criminal prosecutions to punish offenders, civil injunctions to shut the schemes down, and asset forfeiture to take back ill-gotten gains. Today is only the beginning. I have directed Department Prosecutors to coordinate with the domestic law enforcement partners and foreign counterparts to stop these criminals from exploiting our seniors.”
The attorneys of Pietragallo’s White Collar Criminal Defense practice are experienced in every aspect of a white collar criminal defense matters and investigations.
