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50 Cent to Receive $14.5 Million in Legal Malpractice Suit

Rapper awarded payout after suing former legal team over botched headphones lawsuit; $14.5 million will go toward bankruptcy settlement

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50 Cent was awarded $14.5 million stemming from a malpractice suit the rapper filed against a law firm that represented him in a headphones lawsuit.

However, it’s unlikely 50 Cent will see any of that award, as most of it will go toward satisfying the $23 million bankruptcy settlement he agreed to in July, pending approval, Forbes reports.

In a 2014 lawsuit, 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) was ordered to pay headphone makers Sleek Audio $16 million after the rapper severed his deal with Sleek to produce his own brand of headphones that a court ruled was “basically the same designs” as his Sleek-branded pair.

Following that decision, 50 Cent filed a malpractice suit against Garvey Schubert Barer (GSB), the law firm who represented him against Sleek Audio, alleging that the firm “didn’t adequately represent his interests in licensing negotiations and arbitration disputes with Sleek Audio.”

“Among GSB’s numerous failures was its inexplicable decision not to call technical and damages experts to rebut expert testimony offered by Sleek — failures relied upon by the arbitrator in crediting Sleek’s experts and entering an eight-figure award in Sleek’s favor,” 50 Cent’s new legal representation alleged in their suit against GSB.

As part of 50 Cent’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan, agreed to in July after he filed for bankruptcy in July 2015, the rapper owed Sleek Audio $17 million, making them 50 Cent’s largest outstanding debt. 50 Cent also owes $7 million in damages after losing a privacy lawsuit over a leaked sex tape.

In a deleted Instagram post following the $14.5 million decision, the rapper wrote, “I just got 14.5 million back from one Law Firm For malpractice. They fucked up so bad, I don’t think they should be practicing Law.”

On Monday, 50 Cent replaced that post with a Photoshopped image of the rapper sitting on a stack of money and a caption that read, “I retract my earlier statements about the legal services provided to me by the law firm of Garvey Schubert Barer. The law firm and I have settled our dispute and I consider the issue closed.”

“With respect to Sleek Audio, the $14.5 million settlement represents significantly more than the $12.5 million payable to Sleek Audio under the Bankruptcy Plan and more than half of the total amount owed under Mr. Jackson’s reorganization plan,” Craig Weiner, one of 50 Cent’s lawyers in the malpractice said, said in a statement.

“We are informed that these proceeds, together with other funds contributed by Mr. Jackson should position the Estate to provide for the remaining obligations to be satisfied in connection with this successful Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan. This is a most significant achievement, especially considering that the Plan was approved less than six months ago and provided Mr. Jackson with up to five years to satisfy all debts. Mr. Jackson is eager to move forward in doing what is best for his estate and creditors, and this settlement brings us one step closer toward that end.”

Sourced From – http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/50-cent-to-receive-145-million-in-legal-malpractice-suit-w453975

DEA raids colossal fentanyl operation. Could produce thousands of pills per hour.

By Ben Guarino

In one of the largest drug busts in Utah history, federal agents seized synthetic opioids in bulk and cash by the bagful on Tuesday. The home the agents raided contained a “pill press,” which they considered to be the source of thousands, possibly millions, of fentanyl pills. The drug producers falsely labeled the pills as Xanax or oxycodone and distributed the capsules in part by mail across the United States.

Multiple federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Guard, as well as the Internal Revenue Service, surrounded a house located in the city of Cottonwood Heights, in Salt Lake County. Authorities also searched another home, which the Salt Lake Tribune described as a “stash location.” At the stash location alone, the Tribune reported that authorities found 70,000 pills disguised as oxycodone and another 25,000 as fake Xanax.

Witnesses likened the scene at Cottonwood Heights to something “out of a science fiction movie,” as ABC4 Utah News put it, because agents donned oxygen tanks and protective gear before entering the home. Agencies were concerned that skin contact with fentanyl powder, which was reportedly present throughout the house, posed a danger.

Full Read – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/23/dea-raids-colossal-fentanyl-operation-in-one-of-the-largest-drug-busts-in-utah-history/

Anthony Michael Hall Charged With Felony Battery for Alleged Assault, Faces Up to Seven Years in Jail: Report

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Anthony Michael Hall is facing up to seven years in jail after he was charged with felony battery with serious bodily injury for allegedly attacking his neighbor, TMZ reported on Sunday, November 27.

The Los Angeles County district attorney charged the Breakfast Club actor, 48, with the crime two months after he allegedly broke his neighbor’s wrist and injured his back during an altercation outside their condo development in Playa del Rey, California.

In grainy September 13 security footage obtained by TMZ, a man identified by the site as Hall is pictured arguing with another man before shoving him to the ground and walking away. The site reported at the time that the incident started after the neighbor left a gate open, prompting Hall to yell at him to close it. He then shut the gate himself before allegedly arguing with the neighbor and pushing him down.

TMZ reported that due to special circumstances, Hall’s max jail sentence may be upped from four years to seven.

This isn’t the first time the Sixteen Candles star has gotten into trouble at his condo. In 2011, TMZ reported that he was arrested on suspicion of disturbing the peace after an alleged dispute with his neighbor. The site also reported that Hall frightened his neighbors at the time by “screaming obscenities and challenging people to fights in the street.”

Full Article – http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/anthony-michael-hall-faces-7-years-jail-for-felony-battery-report-w452432

Accused Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof will represent himself at federal hate-crimes trial

November 28 at 7:35 PM

The white man charged with killing nine black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C., last year will be allowed to represent himself in his federal hate-crimes trial, a judge said Monday.

This means that Dylann Roof, 22, could question survivors of the attack if they are called to testify in the case, one of two trials he faces for the massacre at Emanuel AME Church. In addition to being indicted on federal hate-crimes charges, Roof has been charged with murder and attempted murder in state court, and he faces potential death sentences in both trials.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel’s decision Monday came as jury selection is getting underway in the federal trial after a three-week delay. Jury selection was initially scheduled to begin earlier this month, but it was abruptly postponed after last-minute questions arose about Roof’s ability to understand the proceedings and assist in his own defense.

On Friday, Gergel ruled that Roof was competent to stand trial, although he kept sealed his exact reasons for doing so, and hearings and filings on the matter also were shielded from public view.

There were other sealed filings over the weekend in the case, which may have reflected debate about Roof’s request to represent himself. It is unclear how his decision to represent himself could affect the timetable for the trial, which is expected to last months. Gergel is expected to issue a written order later Monday, according to the Justice Department.


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Full Article – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/28/accused-charleston-church-shooter-will-represent-himself-at-federal-hate-crimes-trial/?utm_term=.00c98046192b

Is the American Mafia on the Rise?

Expert Selwyn Raab on how September 11th helped the Mob evade annihilation and rebuild into the 21st century

When Selwyn Raab first published his 765-page jeremiad Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires, the year was 2005 and the Mob was, in Raab’s words, “a crushed colossus.” Decades of indictments brought under the RICO law had vanquished even the most fearsome mobsters; Bonanno crime boss Joseph Massino had just flipped sides for the Feds the year before, and two years prior to that, John “The Teflon Don” Gotti had died a lonely death in a Missouri prison hospital far from the streets of New York.

The book, which drew from Raab’s four-decade career investigating the Mob for the metropolitan desk of The New York Times, has since been hailed as the definitive account on all things Cosa Nostra, complete with painstakingly detailed family trees and whole appendixes dedicated to things like “Mafia Boss Succession.” (Raab later became a consultant for AMC’s 10-part seriesThe Making of the Mob, among others.) Yet despite the prevailing belief that the Mob had been defeated – and the fact that Raab himself had spent nearly 700 pages illustrating the elaborate terms of this crushing defeat – he devoted the last 20 pages to the likelihood of the “resurgence” referred to in its lengthy subtitle.

“This [was] a stretch,” chalked up to “an apparent attempt to buoy [the book’s] relevance,” decided Bryan Burrough in the Times original 2005 review. Most in New York would’ve agreed with him. But Raab, in all his expertise, had the foresight that many at this time did not. He believed the September 11th attacks four years earlier had so dramatically shifted the priority of the FBI’s New York bureau – the largest in the nation – from organized crime to homeland security, that the mafia would be poised for a comeback.

“The Mob was on the ropes and really needed only one or two more crushing blows before the FBI could really turn these people into old street gangs,” says Raab. “That changed after 9/11.”

He was right. Even fictional mobsters like Tony Soprano got a reprieve when the FBI agent who had tailed him for five seasons, Dwight Harris, was reassigned to an anti-terrorism case in Pakistan after September 11th — and was kept from his original pursuit of the mob boss even after returning to the U.S. (“That job you got now must be depressing,” Tony’s nephew Christopher tells Harris. “How goes the war on terror anyway?”)

And so the mafia has been able to gain ground and even resurface from time to time for the kind of public spectacle that once was commonplace. In 2011, the bureau made the largest bust in U.S. history, arresting 127 people (more than 30 of them “made men”) on charges ranging from narcotics trafficking and extortion to murder, proving the families are still out there. And just this summer, the Feds busted an operation coined the “East Coast La Cosa Nostra Enterprise” which produced 46 arrests and saw an elaborate crime ring, led by an ex-Philadelphia Mob boss, extending from Massachusetts all the way down to south Florida.

Ten years have passed since Raab, now 82, published his legendary tome. This year, he decided it was time to give Five Families an update for the modern age with an anniversary addition that clues readers in on recent developments. Rolling Stone talked to Raab to hear what the Bonanno, Genovese, Gambino, Colombo and Lucchese families are up to in 2016.

What made you want to revisit this book?
Just the survival of these guys, it’s amazing. They have more than nine lives, especially in New York. It was obvious that a lot had changed over 10 years and that the book needed updating. Everyone is always writing obituaries on these guys, especially after Gotti was convicted, but they’re always wrong.

Just how big a factor was 9/11 in helping these guys survive?
A major, major factor. Priorities for law enforcement are always shifting, but until 9/11, they were doing so well. The FBI also had the buildup of expertise by having people who really knew what they were doing, so in terms of shift emphasis, there’s no question it was a reprieve. There were two major interests or priorities for the New York bureau since the beginning of the Cold War: one was counterespionage, the other was organized crime. But all that changed after 9/11. As an example, combined FBI, New York Police and some other organized crime task forces in the New York area went from 300 or 400 agents, down to 20 or 30. When you don’t have the personnel, you’re not going to have the indictments or convictions.

Will the FBI’s focus ever shift back to the Mafia?
I’m no soothsayer, but it’s certainly not a priority now. The scare today, justifiably, is from terrorism, not from the Mafia. You can see that in politics, in the election, and every time there’s another attack like San Bernardino or the recent bombing in New York – but when you leave [Mafia members] alone, they recoup. And that’s always been the problem. They have an organizational framework such that makes it so it doesn’t matter if you take out the leader. It’s not like drugs or even bank robberies where if you take out the leader, the operation is gone. They’re all replaceable. Somebody moves in to continue the operation – and I thought that this East Coast cooperative, where they were working from Massachusetts all the way down to Florida, was pretty good evidence of that — and the Mafia is still effective and still making inroads.

You write that the Mob has become a “perennial favorite theme for the entertainment industry.” How has this helped them in the modern age?
There are an immense amount of mafia groupies. There’s a perverse aspect to this because it gets kids and young people interested in this feeling that [Mafia members] lives are glamorous and a way of beating the system. Hollywood and TV don’t dismiss them as venal or pernicious. I think for very vulnerable people you get this vicarious kick that there’s something to this life. Part of it comes from this anti-establishment thing. John Gotti personified this, that by being anti-establishment, anti-government you could somehow succeed in life and be envied. Look at Gotti’s grandson’s wedding last year; he collected two million dollars and the place was swamped with people giving him gifts. [The entertainment industry] turns these people into icons and interesting characters who are anti-society. It doesn’t make them look like they’re token bad guys.

A great example was Sammy “The Bull” Gravano; when he saw The Godfather he was in his late teens and he said it made him feel proud to be an Italian and to join the Mafia. And that movie is repeated endlessly. What The Godfather also does is establish that there is good mafia and bad mafia by essentially showing a white hat mafia that was opposed to the introduction of narcotics, which was a total lie and mischaracterization. But the point was there were still Mafiosi who were doing good work, and that there were traditions that were virtuous. This helps them.

Full Article – http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/is-the-american-mafia-on-the-rise-w451888