Just up on the Times Picayune breaking news:
One of the state’s best minds in gaming law pleaded guilty this morning to bilking the white-shoe law firm he worked for of $30 million, then stashing the bulk of it in a Swiss bank account.
Jamie Perdigao, 46, pleaded guilty to 30 of the 63 felony counts he was facing, and agreed to forfeit the $30 million, which was already in the possession of the U.S. Marshal’s Office. Clad in prison garb and shackled at the wrists and ankles, Perdigao made his plea before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon.
Perdigao, who was arrested in 2004, was facing a Dec. 1 trial on 63 charges revolving around allegations that he submitted phony invoices to his gambling industry clients, causing them to remit millions in fraudulent payments. He then kept the money, prosecutor claim. The charges included mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutors said they have recovered all $30 million. If convicted on the original and new charges against him, Perdigao faces a maximum prison sentence of more than 1,000 years and forfeiture of the $30 million, money now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service
The updated Times Picayune story has some reaction from Jim Letten:
Outside the courtroom, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten called Perdigao — who had unsuccessfully sought to have Letten’s office recused from the case — “the poster child for arrogance, greed and unmitigated complex ongoing theft.”
Earlier this year, Perdigao filed court motions claiming that Letten’s office was uninterested in pursuing his tips about criminal wrongdoing because they involved misdeeds by federal prosecutors.
Letten on Friday called those claims “incredible, vicious and stupid.”
Perdigao “thought that theft and deceit and lying was a game,” Letten said. “He learned today that that sort of crime is very serious business. The game is over for Perdigao.”
Earlier this month, Perdigao was arrested on charges that he had been hacking into Adams & Reese’s private computer network. He has been held in the federal wing of Orleans Parish Prison since then.
Letten called the hacking “absolutely part of an attempt to obstruct justice.”
Jim Letten’s office has filed an additional pleading against allowing the rule 17C subpoena.
The government advises the Honorable Court that the review of the seized items pursuant to the search warrant is still ongoing. The government has learned that some of the seized documents from the search warrant from the defendant’s seized computer reveal, among many other documents, that the defendant had in his possession were the following:
- Correspondence between the United States Attorney’s Office and Adams & Reese;
- Copies of Adams & Reese notes of meetings with the United States Attorney’s Office;
- A copy of a grand jury subpoena issued to Adams & Reese by the government;
- A copy of an agreement between the FBI and Adams & Reese pursuant to the grand jury subpoena that was issued to Adams & Reese.
- Lists of Adams & Reese personnel social security numbers, salary schedules, and computer user names.
I’ll repeat the theory I posted last night that it is very possible a fresh set of eyes at DoJ is looking at this case and the evidence, especially the newly seized computers. IMHO.
sop
I don’t know what 30 charges are involved but it would seem that Perdigao is down to theft charges — not RICO.
Don’t understand what you mean Sally. RICO is different case entirely.
That is correct Sally. I have emails out to our sources for reaction and scuttlebutt. We’ll update as information becomes available.
sop
and it’s still 1000 years?
The theft charges are lesser penalties than the greater penalties under the RICO laws.
It would appear that this is over. Everybody go home and forget about it. What skimming scheme, do you see a skimming scheme, I don’t see a skimming skim, do you?
I’m still confused Sally. Perdigao was not charged with RICO was he. That’s the case he filed against Adams & Reese.
Not time to go home yet IMO; so, stay tuned.
It isn’t time to go home?
Perdigao’s action against Adams and Reese was a civil matter that made allegations that Adams and Reese engaged in acts of rackateering.
Perdigao had charges brought against him in the criminal case that included violations of RICO laws.
Now, I guess he pled to charges that included theft and fraud — but I don’t see any conspiracy charges being pled.
I could have missed it, but I don’t remember seeing any RICO charges against him. That would require an “enterprise”, you know, like him and the girlfriend.
According to Geaux, he may have paid off her mortgage with stolen money. Does she benefit? Does he benefit? Did she help? Did they plan and one of them do something further?
Lots of questions with answers.
Well, we were all waiting to hear from the U.S. Attorneys who Perdigao conspired with. We never did hear that.
The U.S. Attorneys never came clear on who the money belonged to. How could years of billing not be discovered without co-conspirators? I guess the U.S. Attorneys would just put on evidence that it wasn’t Perdigao’s money. Clients don’t get overbilled for years without the client’s knowledge and participation. Nobody is going near the skimming scheme. Nobody wants to know about the skimming scheme.
I don’t know anything about the girlfriend’s participation in anything. I don’t know where the ideas came from that her mortgage was paid by Perdigao with stolen money. What that was all about, I sure don’t know.
Hey, I thought the Judge put a wall up on Letten’s participation. Hee, hee, hee.
sop — your 3x — thanks for repeating that. The more pissed off Letten is, the more I would believe that is very true.
Sally I’ve been message boarding a long time but blogging less than a year. We have been getting leaks on this case going back to the tickets Sholes fixed. Being a newbie I don’t quite know what to make of some of the signals we are getting thus I’m unwilling to be more definative.
That said I wouldn’t have posted it if I didn’t think there was a good chance it is on the mark. Nothing happened today to either prove or disprove my theory so I guess we’ll continue to hide, watch and see what develops.
sop
There more truth to the “nothing happened today” than you know, Sop, but what claimsguy missed is that I’ve never claimed to “have a clue” about the workings of the legal system – meaning that I should have said “nothing happened today that I can find on PACER.
I’ve checked all four Perdigao cases – his RICO against Adams and Reese is “frozen in time” with nothing posted there since they lawyered up in July.
That’s the only civil. There are three criminal cases – the one when he was arrested in 04 that became a different case in 07 when he was indicted on the zillion counts; and then the new “computer fraud case”.
Remember in USA v Scruggs and USA v Moultrie there was a pleading document and then in the Scruggs case there were transcripts of the plea hearing.
The only thing added to the docket today was in the 07 case and it’s the USA’s motion supplementing the previously filed opposition to Perdigao’s motion to issue subpoenas.
I’ve seen a good bit of difference from one court to another so it could be something that just happens differently in Louisiana.
I wouldn’t find it nearly so odd that there’s no “end” if there had been a “beginning” but all it says is a complaint was made – there’s no linked document in 04 or 07 but there is the one that we posted on the new computer fraud case.
Bottom line is that what we know about his plea today is what you’ve posted from news in the TP.
…and there’s still no mention of taint team going over the computers.
but it’s Halloween so go figure.
Nowdy,
Everything moved so rapidly once they uncovered the computer access, including his guilty plea, it may be no taint team was necessary.
Doesn’t it seem odd to you, NAAS. that the office would be pulling evidence of its own contact with Adams & Reese off the computers – particularly in light of Perdigao’s allegations? But, you’re right about it moving fast. I feel like I’ve run cross country all week. I can’t imagine what it has been like for his lawyers, parents and girlfriend, or him for that matter.
After some time to absorb things, the one question that keeps me scratching my head – after 400 successful “accesses” to the computer system over almost 3 years, what happened October 11 thru 14?
Oh, I’m so glad to know you’re still with us, NAAS. Check out the reference to Perdigao below the break in post I just put up on electronic voting systems…I almost added Perdigao to the title hoping the question you asked would come up.
Nowdy,
Are you thinking he possibly subpoenaed surveillance records to see if they’d been monitoring his activity on the system? Did he think it was so easy to access the system, they must be watching?
What do you think about the fact he used his own name as password in October, literally days away from going to trial? Was he self destructing? Did he feel undeserving of the documents, evidence and perceived advantage because he got them by stealth?
Not a subpoena but …
9/26 – Perdigao filed this motion for disclosure of electronic and other surveillance.
10/15 – he’s arrested on charges of computer fraud.
10/17 – USA files response to the 9/26 motion and said they had transcripts of six old phone calls.
Naturally, I find it odd that A&R just happened to discover four year record of contacts after he filed this motion.
The evidence revealed thus far proves what? The FBI found a laptop previously stolen by person(s) unknown at his girlfriend’s house; an A&R computer he wasn’t asked to return when he was first arrested and someone logging in from IP address of one of those or the third computer at this address. (check me on this because I’m writing from memory of what I read when posting the document of claims supporting his recent arrest).
When I was reading the information on voter fraud, the description of the “man in the middle attack” (second diagram/description) struck me as a way someone using his IP address could establish the login record. Maybe someone else stole the laptop and made a gift of it to him.
I don’t know what happened NAAS – just that he might as well have invited Letten and the FBI over for dinner and served computers as the main dish and dessert.
Doesn’t make sense and he doesn’t strike me as the self-destruct type. He strikes me as a very smart lawyer working hard to clear his name who had to have been very frustrated by lack of investigation into the matters he reported.
Is that why he was stealing at Walmart? Because he was working hard to clear his name? Take off the blinders.
FBG:
Do you know him? Did/do you work at A&R?
FBG, what blinders? NAAS didn’t ask about Walmart and there’s nothing about it in my answer – but since you brought the subject up, I guess you’re telling us you believe the security violations of the A&R system really did go on for four years without detection. Got any evidence to back that up?
“I guess you
You nailed it, Sop! A focus on Perdigao alone is short-sighted.
Until one of us has time to do a recap post on the subpoenas, readers can use the “search box” at the top of the page to find all we’ve written or follow these links.
Here’s the link to the first post on the subpoenas.
This links to the post on the motion in limine to exclude evidence from Adams & Reese filed by USA Letten.
Here’s part 2 of that post with link to the motion and details on evidence Perdigao wanted to authorization to subpoena. (Motion to Authorize Issuance of Subpoenas Duces Tecum Pursuant to Rule 17(C))