David Bershad (left) and Steven Schulman (right) were each sentenced Tuesday to six month prison terms for their role in the shareholder suit kickback scheme. Two other partners, Mel Weiss and Bill Lerach, are already serving 2 1/2 and 2 year sentences, respectively, for their conviction. Bershad and Schulman plead guilty last year in federal court in Los Angeles were both also ordered to pay $250,000 fines. Bershad has already forfeited $7.75 million and Schulman has forfeited $1.85 million. Milberg Weiss settled the case against the firm by agreeing to pay $75 million. The firm secretly payed three clients more than $11 million to serve as lead plaintiffs in cases that netted a reported $251 million in attorneys fees. The firm's practice to pay plaintiffs to file shareholder suits goes back as far as 1979 and continued until 2005. Bershad is reported to have said in court, "I personally take responsibility for what I did. It was wrong." Schulman is quoted in court as saying, "My error was to take the wrong route when that occurred. Today, I pay already a high price. I really don't know exactly how I will get out of this problem."
All I have to say is , what does around, comes around.
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