Weiss, who had helped found the law firm Milberg LLP
, pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge in March 2008 for his involvement in making kickbacks to plaintiffs who agreed to take part in shareholder class-actions. Three other Milberg partners besides Weiss pleaded guilty in the case, including William Lerach who founded the law firm later to become known as Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd.
While Milberg LLP worked itself out of the situation by paying $75 million to settle the investigation, Weiss received a sentence for 30 months in prison along with forfeiture of $9.75 million and a hefty fine. His sentence also included three years of supervised release.
Though the plea bargain reached by Weiss in the initial criminal case included a stipulation that breaking any laws while on probation would mean his return to prison, Weiss was arrested on DUI charges in December in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Weiss pleaded guilty to the DUI charges on April 18 and received 12 months probation with 50 hours of community service. He reached his agreement with the prosecutors based on this sentence to avoid returning to prison for breaking conditions of his probation stemming from his earlier sentence.
On Friday, at the hearing, Weiss told U.S. District Judge John F. Walter that he promised that "drinking and driving will never again happen in my lifetime."
Weiss had dominated shareholder class-action litigation for about three decades and is best known for obtaining a $1.3 billion settlement for investors in the Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc scandal in the 80s.
