A bad year for the Morales family

First Michael Morales, brother of former Attorney General Dan Morales, pleads guilty to a charge of attempting to extort money from the Tony Sanchez gubernatorial campaign. Now Dan Morales is in his own legal trouble, as a federal grand jury has indicted him for fraud involving the $17.3 billion tobacco lawsuit settlement from 1998.

Morales was charged with 12 counts of mail fraud, conspiracy, filing a false tax return and making a false statement on a loan application. The charges carry maximum penalties totaling 83 years in prison and $3.6 million in fines, if he is convicted.

Houston lawyer Marc Murr was charged with mail fraud and conspiracy and faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if found guilty.

The charges stem from Morales' unsuccessful attempt to obtain as much as $520 million in legal fees for Murr in the tobacco case, litigation in which other lawyers said Murr did little, if any, work.

There'd been controversy over the legal fees that were awarded after the tobacco case was settled, but it always had the smell of politics to me. Morales better hope he can make the argument that that's still the case here, because these chargees are not only serious, they're also just plain tawdry. If he is guilty, he really ought to be ashamed of himself.

Whatever happens from here on out, I think we can all agree that it's just as well Dan Morales was not the Democratic candidate for Governor last year. I'm pretty sure he won't be good buddies with Rick Perry for much longer, too.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 07, 2003 to The great state of Texas | TrackBack