Million Dollar Baby

One of the more memorable lines in the annals of attorney discipline has been revived in a recommendation for a three-year suspension by the New Jersey Disciplinary Review Board, quoting from the New York three-year suspension

Notwithstanding the aforementioned mitigation, we find that the respondent should have known that the money was from an illegal source because, as the judge remarked at sentencing, “people usually don’t walk into an office with a million dollars in cash” and ask that it be converted to another form. The respondent should have been on notice that this was not a legitimate transaction. The respondent acknowledged that something was not right and that he thought he was breaking some law somewhere, but decided to participate anyway. While no client was harmed, the respondent acted recklessly and was motivated by greed.

Notably, jurisdiction to sanction was found because the Respondent was admitted pro hac vice in New Jersey matters.

Sanction

Here, respondent was convicted of one count of running an illegal money transmitting business. He accepted $1 million in cash from a South American client and agreed to deposit that money into his attorney trust account for illegal distribution to sub-accounts. Although respondent admitted that he “didn’t feel good about it” and suspected he might be breaking the law, he decided to participate in the criminal scheme in return for a $25,000 payment. Clearly, respondent’s conduct and resulting criminal conviction constituted misconduct.

…on balance, to protect the public and preserve confidence in the bar, we determine to grant the motion for final discipline and to impose a three-year bar on respondent’s ability to apply for future pro hac vice or plenary admission in New Jersey.

The Supreme Court reduced the ban to two years. (Mike Frisch)