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LOCKED UP! Former Dewey CFO Jailed Because He Can't Pay Fine

The judge found he 'willfully failed to pay his fine.'

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When former Dewey & LeBoeuf chief financial officer Joel Sanders was sentenced to a million-dollar fine and 750 hours of community service rather than jail time for his conviction on two felony fraud charges and a misdemeanor count of conspiracy, you probably thought he got off easy, at least compared with the jail time the prosecution was seeking. But today, Sanders was taken into custody when he couldn’t make the payment on his first installment on the fine.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Robert Stolz found that Sanders “willfully failed to pay his fine.” Sanders had argued he was unable to make his first of three yearly payments on the fine without dire financial consequences for his family. However the judge rejected this argument, saying, “I find the claimed inability to pay here not credible.” In support of his decision, Justice Stolz cited some of the assets Sanders has, as reported by Law.com:

But at a hearing on Thursday, Stolz noted that Sanders owns, outright, a house in Long Island worth at least $650,000, and has about $850,000 in equity on an oceanfront condominium in Miami Beach, Florida that’s worth around $1 million. The judge also pointed out that Sanders and his wife have leases on “two high-end cars”—one an Audi and the other a Mercedes-Benz.

Sanders can be incarcerated for up to a year until he pays the full $1 million fine. Sanders’s attorney, DLA Piper partner Christopher Oprison, expressed displeasure at the decision, “It’s a travesty. I think it’s completely unjust. This is the last person you want to put away and send away in prison, and I think it’s really unfortunate it came to this.”

But Oprison still noted they’re going to try to pay the fine.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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