Did Jim Petro Help Stall Prosecution of Joanne Schneider?
From The Cleveland Scene:
Roetzel in the crossfire
The last time we checked in with Joanne Schneider, she was at the center of one of Ohio’s largest securities-fraud cases [”The $60 Million Pyramid,” April 19, 2006].It all started when Schneider decided to take on an ambitious project in Parma Heights that included a gated community, waterfalls, three restaurants, and two arcades. Problem is, Schneider raised $60 million from more than 700 investors through promissory notes — formal IOUs that she had no way of paying back. She was quickly hit with a cease-and-desist order from the state Division of Securities.
But according to stiffed investors, her attorney, Ken Lapine of Roetzel & Andress, didn’t tell her to stop issuing the IOUs. Instead, Lapine allegedly used Roetzel’s clout with former Attorney General Jim Petro to stall any prosecution of Schneider. After all, Roetzel was responsible for one-tenth of Petro’s donations. And the Laziest Man in Law Enforcement had a sturdy reputation for turning a blind eye to anyone willing to pay.
As Schneider continued to rake in investors, Roetzel collected fees approaching $1 million.
Now Schneider faces 163 counts of fraud. And she doesn’t seem interested in going down alone.
Until now, Lapine has refused to reveal anything about his work for Schneider, claiming attorney-client privilege. But last week, Schneider waived said privilege, which means Lapine can now be deposed. And that may produce some rather unseemly headlines for one of Ohio’s most connected law firms.
“This is huge,” says Josh Cohen, who represents investors. “[Schneider] put herself in peril by doing this, but we are convinced that there’s a strong case against Roetzel & Andress. Their political pull is terrifying.”
Marty said,
Wrote on May 30, 2007 @ 9:02 am
You must be really desperate to Petro-bash today, Matthew. Or did you just miss me?�
Matthew said,
Wrote on May 30, 2007 @ 9:25 am
I know how awful the Cleveland Scene is- But there is no denying that Roetzel is one of the most corrupt law firms in America.
Marty said,
Wrote on May 30, 2007 @ 11:24 am
Most corrupt? I'm not here to defend Roetzel, and I don't keep up on their activities or news stories, but do you have anything to back that up?�
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on May 30, 2007 @ 6:37 pm
You seem to be doing a good job of defending them anyway. petro replaced Amer Cunningham who had experience in patent law with r&a who had no experience, in fact they had to hire outside attorneys who did in order to do the job for the state of Ohio. The major thing that r&a had that Amer Cunningham did not was major�donations to petro's campaign. Also�neither the firm (Amer Cunningham) nor Mr. Morrison are in the midst of a trial, the car dealer was and Mr. Morrison was the middleman who demanded everything be kept up front and on record so there was a money trail in case there was questions plus he was the defences key witness. Mr. Morrison is the Summit GOP chair personal�attorney and Mr. Morrison was the main accuser in the pay to play since early last year jim petro had a $500.00 a head at r&a in Akron things to me seem to look a little different. Oh yes, Jack is a stand up guy.
Marty said,
Wrote on May 31, 2007 @ 12:54 am
In late-2002, there were rumors of shady goings-on and wasted public funds coming out of the special council offices in Akron. The PD and Beacon-Journal wrote several articles and editorials about it. These firms were linked to Arshinkoff, and he supplied the previous AG Betty Montgomery with the list of appointments in Akron.
Arshinkoff hates Petro, and Petro is certainly no fan of his, so there was little doubt that Petro wouldn't listen to Arshinkoff's "suggestions" on who to give special council work to. That's one reason Arshinkoff supported Deters for AG. Arshinkoff also didn't get along with the people at Roetzel, which is why they never got special council work, despite being one of the largest and most successful firms in Akron.
Did they donate to Petro? Yes, of course… but most major lawfirms in the state did. Plus, Roetzel saw an opportunity to pick up the slack from Arshinkoff's people and finally get some state work. When Petro won, he listened to the pleas of the PD and Beacon-Journal and stopped giving special council work to Arshinkoff's cronies. He gave much of it to Roetzel instead, and they did a great job. The special council office more than doubled the amount of money collected for the taxpayers of Ohio under Petro as compared to the previous administration.
As for Morrison, I don't know him personally, but I know Petro and can tell you without a doubt that he never would have said the things Morrison accused of him saying in their oh-so-convienent one-on-one private conversation. First, Petro wouldn't have said those types of things to begin with, and second he wouldn't have been caught dead talking to the best friend of his worst enemy in politics. I'll also add that in late 2005, Arshinkoff mentioned to several people that he had "a bomb" to drop on Petro that would cause him to drop out of the Governor's race. And then big surprise — this story breaks, about two weeks before the filing deadline. How convienent.
And just a little more info about this "stand up guy" Jack Morrison, here's a clip from this article -
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=355644&Category=15&subCategoryID=0
On Monday morning, Morrison told jurors if he had any inkling drug dealers were involved in the diamond and Tyson property deal, he would have advised Monea to walk away.
(Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert) Bulford is skeptical. In papers filed with the court, Bulford wrote it was unlikely that the evidence would show that Morrison was explicitly told the money came from drug dealers.
But, "government counsel believes the evidence … will show that there may have been willful blindness in that office when Monea, attorney Morrison and Miller met. … the facts established at trial will probably point to the fact that the attorney himself may have been 'deliberately ignorant.' "
Bulford has not presented any evidence that shows Morrison didn't want to know the source of the funds.
But Bulford wrote that based on recorded conversations Monea and Miller had with the undercover agent, the two had apparently indicated to Morrison that they wanted to structure the money transfers to Amer Cunningham's escrow account in the deal in such a way as not to raise authorities' suspicions. The two said Morrison had told them if they deposited a large amount of money in a new account, "the FBI would be all over it."
Morrison testified that he didn't recall his conversations with Monea taking place as described by Bulford. He said he did tell Monea that any large wire transfers could be held by federal authorities for a period of time while they were reviewed.
Bulford wrote that right before the December arrests in Morrison's office, the attorney "assured" Miller, Monea and an undercover agent, who was recording the conversation, that the transaction would probably not trigger any red flags with authorities. Bulford wrote that Morrison said he could answer any questions that might be raised in an investigation.
Morrison could not be reached for comment at his office Monday evening.
Wow, it's amazing that Morrison "couldn't recall" those damaging personal conversations that he had with his clients just a few months back.� Especially since he was able to so vividly "recall" those conversations he had with Petro five years earlier.� I guess he just has selective memory.� Again, how convienent.
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on May 31, 2007 @ 4:24 am
Miller was a car dealer, petro was the AG of Ohio. There is a little bit of importance to remember with petro more so than with a car dealer. but I know there is a large rock and a felons house. How you digressed to another law firm from the�original and 2 people who are not even related to it is beyond me. The�original story was on r&a.
Marty said,
Wrote on May 31, 2007 @ 9:15 am
Yea… well let's not forget this simple fact as well, which goes with my original point -�
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on May 31, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
Funny thing I found this Cleveland PD article that seems to be describing someone I have been blogging to, a "T".http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_neobabble/archives/print109153.html and this http://www.columbustownhall.com/townhall/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=3052 Ok good however I still don't trust the firm, I know of one person who quit there and went somewhere else because of their way they do�business and I know of a judge they used to knock out another who was in my opinion a heck of�a lot�better than what they tried to get in. You have your opinion and I have mine. If this firm keeps up their�tactics I believe it will hurt this state if not this nation down the road.
Marty said,
Wrote on May 31, 2007 @ 9:01 pm
Yea… I've read those articles too. �
Sandy Theis lost her job at the PD.� I've heard from pretty reliable sources that writing that article didn't help much.� Talk to several political reporters across the state, and they think she was duped into running campaign propaganda.� The reason for that belief is that she ran with the Morrison accusation.� He was so connected to a political enemy of Petro's and Morrison's claim really stretches credibility.� Outside of those sentences, then the claims in the article are in no way out of the ordinary. �
What happened with the Summit County special council work happens after any election where there is a party change at a position.� Companies that didn't support the candidate usually don't get work — although 50% of the special council work in the Petro's AG office went to companies that did not contribute, which is a very good percentage.� But unfortunatly, that's the way that politics work.� "Friends" get state work.� Petro had a plan he introduced that would have completely eliminated that practice, but no one wanted to support it.� The establishment likes the status quo too much.
What made this so different was that there was no party change, but Arshinkoff so controlled the Summit County GOP that Petro wouldn't have raised a cent there without help from local GOP misfits like those at Roetzel.� Plus, as I mentioned, rumors of corruption in the Summit special council office prior to Petro being elected were rampant. �
So, it made sense when Petro's team decided to stop giving work to any firms who had worked in Summit County.� That meant yes, pulling future work from Weber, the "patent law experts".� Guess what… patent work isn't tough.� Roetzel did just fine with it. �
I'll stand by the results as the proof of the pudding.� Special Council work doubled the amount of collections under Petro.� It would be one thing if efficiency went down, but it went way up under Petro.� Case closed.
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on June 1, 2007 @ 4:34 am
And I will never trust the man either.
janick4u said,
Wrote on June 1, 2007 @ 4:55 pm
Do you feel better with the current folks at the helm? I trust Jim Petro 1000x more than the current folks.
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on June 1, 2007 @ 5:39 pm
No and I believe him to be the reason why we have the person at the helm that we have today.
Marty said,
Wrote on June 3, 2007 @ 11:22 am
I've seen some idiotic posts from you, BearClaw, but you've outdone yourself with that one.
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on June 3, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
The feeling is mutual my friend, very mutual.