By Jim Warren
jwarren@herald-leader.com
Fen-phen lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Allen Cunningham Jr. have been permanently disbarred from legal practice by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Shirley Cunningham Jr. (left), William Gallion (right)
The court entered orders Thursday afternoon disbarring both attorneys and, under terms of those orders, neither man can ever apply for reinstatement to the Kentucky Bar.
According to the orders, both Cunningham and Gallion had filed motions with the high court asking that they be disbarred.
And, under terms of the orders, both Gallion and Cunningham essentially admitted many of the ethical violations that federal prosecutors have alleged in an on-going case against them involving their handling of a $200-million fen-phen settlement.
Gallion, Cunningham and another attorney, Melborne Mills Jr., were tried on criminal mail fraud charges in federal court this summer. A federal jury at Covington acquitted Mills, but could not reach a verdict in the cases of Cunningham and Gallion.
They are scheduled for a retrial in federal court at Frankfort early next year.
Reach Jim Warren at 1-800-959-06397 Ext. 3255 or 859-231-3255
The Associated Press
A federal judge in northern Kentucky has declined to postpone the retrial of two attorneys charged in a diet drug settlement case.
The Courier-Journal reported Friday that U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves called a delay unacceptable and ordered a trial date be set within 70 days of Sept. 11.
William J. Gallion and Shirley Cunningham had asked that the trial be pushed back to April.
An indictment charges the two with eight counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud 440 clients of $94.6 million in Kentucky’s fen-phen diet-drug case.
Gallion’s lawyer had sought the delay due to conflicts with other clients.
The two men went to trial in Covington in July on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, but the jury could not reach a verdict.
The lawyers are accused of overpaying themselves from the $200 million settlement.
Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com
By Steve Lannen
slannen@herald-leader.com
One of the attorneys accused of taking money from clients in a multi-million dollar diet-drug settlement case is out of jail. Shirley Cunningham, 52, was released on bond from the Boone County jail on Wednesday.
He had been held in custody for more than a year after a federal judge had set his bond at $45 million. Last Friday, the bond was reset to $1.25 million.
Another attorney in the case, William Joseph Gallion remained in custody on Wednesday evening. His bond was reset last week to $2.5 million from $52 million.
A third attorney charged in the case was acquitted at a trial earlier this year.
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