Biglaw, Crime

Ex-Skadden Lawyer Who Botched Suicide Pleads Guilty To Running $5M Ponzi Scheme

How much time could he serve in prison for his crimes?

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Nearly one year ago, Charles Bennett, a former corporate lawyer at Skadden Arps and one other “promiment” law firm, jumped into the Hudson River in an unsuccessful attempt to kill himself. He left behind a 16-page suicide note — entitled “A Sad Ending to My Life” — in which he confessed to running a $5 million Ponzi scheme.

Yesterday, Bennett, who was “deeply, deeply ashamed by [his] conduct,” pleaded guilty to securities and wire fraud. Reuters has details on the crimes that led to his guilty plea:

Bennett began the scheme in 2008, luring 30 investors with promises of up to 25 percent returns and misleading claims that a New York State governor and his then-wife were also investors, according to prosecutors and regulators.

The description of the governor matched that of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, whose ex-wife Silda Wall Spitzer at the time of Bennett’s arrest confirmed she once worked with him at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

According to an SEC complaint, Bennett’s investment fraud began after he started his own solo practice. Yikes. We wonder what happened to all of his Biglaw bucks.

Bennett never invested the money; instead, he spent it himself and when forced to do so, used a bit of it to repay friends, family, and colleagues who invested their hard-earned money into what was merely a “fiction of [his] crazed imagination.”

Bennett will be sentenced on March 17, and he faces up to 20 years in prison.

N.Y. lawyer who admitted fraud in would-be suicide note pleads guilty [Reuters]
Lawyer Enters Guilty Plea in Ponzi Scheme Case [New York Law Journal]

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