Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Another case that illustrates inconsistency in sanctions

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today on a case from Pennsylvania where an attorney was suspended for four years because he was found guilty in a money laundering case.  He was convicted as a result of an FBI undercover sting operation of bribes and kickbacks from unqualified loan applicants. The FBI agent  approached the bank president with an idea to conceal his ownership in property because of a bitter divorce.  The lawyer was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 30 months in prison.

So here we have what appears to be a felony conviction (I am not sure the court used the term felony, but given the length of the sentence it seems fair to call it that), for a crime of dishonesty and intent and yet the court does not impose disbarment. I don't get it. 

The case is called Office of Disciplinary Counsel v Sinko and it is available here.

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