Reply #6: Tobacco-Deal Lawyer Indicted in Miss.

[Demeter]

Source: AP via Earthlink


By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 29, 2007 7:41 AM EST

NEW ORLEANS - An attorney who helped negotiate a multibillion-dollar settlement against tobacco companies in the 1990s and has sued insurers over unpaid Hurricane Katrina claims was indicted Wednesday in a suspected scheme to bribe a Mississippi judge.

The indictment accuses Richard "Dickie" Scruggs of conspiring to pay the judge $50,000 to rule in his favor in a lawsuit brought by other attorneys who sought fees for work on Katrina insurance litigation.

Scruggs was indicted along with three other attorneys, including his son, who is his law partner, and a former Mississippi auditor. They face charges including one count of defrauding the federal government and two counts of wire fraud.


Richard Scruggs, whose brother-in-law is Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., earned millions from asbestos litigation and from his role in brokering a multibillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s.



Read more: http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20071129/474e4750_3ca6_1552620071129-1270156715

---

Maybe this is another reason why Trent threw in the towel!