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Mistrial declared in Dewey & LeBoeuf case
Not yet clear if prosecution will pursue another trial
The fraud prosecution against former executives of the law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP ended in a mistrial Monday, with jurors “hopelessly” deadlocked on 93 of the more than 151 charges after 22 days of deliberation.
The jury acquitted ex-chairman Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine, ex-chief financial officer Joel Sanders on many of the charges, but failed to reach a verdict on the most serious ones: grand larceny and scheme to defraud.
The charges stem from alleged misstatements in the marketing materials for a $150 million bond offering in 2010. Back in 2014, a Securities and Exchange Commission regulator said the executives “orchestrated and executed a bold and long-running accounting fraud intended to conceal the firm’s precarious financial condition.”
Cyrus Vance, Manhattan’s district attorney, issued a statement saying the hung jury might “necessitate a retrial pending a thorough review of the case.”
Dewey & LeBoeuf had a major real estate practice before it went under in 2012, with 56 real estate lawyers globally and 28 in New York. Holland & Knight’s Stuart Saft was in charge of Dewey’s real estate practice before he left the firm. [NYT] – Ariel Stulberg