"My Life Is Over": Ex-DOJ Lawyer Busted Trying To Sell Whistlelower Cases

A former corporate-fraud lawyer for the Department of Justice has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing over 40 whistleblower fraud cases in 2016 and trying to sell the information to companies under federal investigation, according to prosecutors.

Jeffrey Wertkin, 40, was arrested in an undercover sting after an attorney for a Sunnyvale, CA tech company contacted the FBI in January following Wertkin's offer to sell them a sealed federal lawsuit for $310,000, according to court documents. As he was taken into custody wearing a wig and fake mustache at a Cupertino, CA hotel by FBI Special Agent William Scanlon, Wertkin reportedly said "My life is over."

Following his arrest, Wertkin engaged in an "obstruction binge" at his private law firm to destroy additional evidence of the scheme he had formulated for over a year, while also trying to frame a former colleague at the DOJ for the theft of the records.

A far more extensive and calculated crime was revealed at Wertkin's sentencing hearing - as the former DOJ prosecutor stole and copied dozens of files - some of which he swiped right off of his boss's desk, copied, and then re-stapled before returning them.

Wertkin "took grotesque advantage" of his position within the DOJ by "shaking down companies" and disclosing confidential information which "jeopardized the integrity of the civil justice system and unfairly cast a shadow over the work of the civil fraud section," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin L. Harris, who added that Wertkin's crime was "was breathtaking in its scope and is the most serious and egregious example of public corruption by a DOJ attorney in recent memory."

Wertkin worked from December 2010 to April 2016 in the department section responsible for recovering $4.7 billion in misspent tax dollars in 2016 alone. Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can receive part of recovered funds for tipping off fraud in government services and contracts by filing what are known as qui tam lawsuits under seal to protect their identities while the United States investigates. -MSN

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