Elite FLA Firm Accused Of Bribery, Stiffing Client

A Fort Lauderdale law firm known for helping George Bush’s case in his year 2000 election victory and for winning hundreds of millions of dollars for clients against a Ponzi schemer, is accused of failing to pay back a loan from one of the Ponzi victims. In a separate case, the law firm Conrad & Scherer is accused of bribing witnesses in a human rights case in which an Atlanta energy company was accused of collaborating with Columbian paramilitary assassins who were targeting union leaders. The law firm lost the human rights case and the energy company sued for defamation, in a matter that could have devastating economic consequences for the firm, according to one observer. The energy company recently won a significant victory when an appeals court upheld a federal court ruling that disallowed privilege for the firm with regard to communications with some witnesses in the human rights case. The court ruled that failure to disclose payments made by the firm to witnesses in that case amounted to a fraud on the court. The firm insists the payments were to provide security to witnesses whose lives were threatened by the paramilitary groups, and that it will ultimately prevail on the matter.