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Deepwater Horizon case has Las Vegas attorney in hot water

Updated June 16, 2017 - 11:10 am

After watching Mark Wahlberg’s new movie “Deepwater Horizon,” I immediately thought of Glen Lerner.

Lerner is certainly not the heroic Wahlberg character.

No, the Las Vegas attorney didn’t represent any of the 11 dead or horribly burned victims when the oil rig exploded and caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico.

His law firm represented shrimp boat owner Casey Thonn, who tried to cheat the victim’s compensation settlement fund out of $355,000. Thonn is now in prison.

Lerner’s circuitous dealings were the basis of sanctions by a federal judge and put him in the position where he’s now fighting disciplinary action by the State Bar of Nevada for alleged professional misconduct.

The Las Vegas attorney’s New Orleans-based law firm Andry Lerner represented Thonn, who ran his compensation claims up from $1,750 to more than $357,000 by filing false tax returns. Lerner is not accused of being involved in the false tax returns.

Lerner is accused of laundering money to conceal $40,000 in secret payments to attorney Lionel Sutton, another friend, who referred Thonn to him after Sutton went to work for the Claims Administration Office. Emails between Lerner, Sutton and Andry showed an effort to get the Andry Lerner claims handled faster than other claims. Ultimately, it couldn’t be proved that occurred.

In the end, Thonn, 37, was entitled to $1,750 and tried to defraud the compensation program out of $355,252. He is now sitting in a federal prison in Florida with another year left on his two-year sentence — one of the larger of fraud attempts from the oil spill settlement. He faces an order to pay $355,000 in restitution.

Not surprisingly, a number of people tried to defraud the victim’s compensation fund. I found six successful prosecutions on the website of the National Center for Disaster Fraud. But they were all between $17,000 and $28,800. Thonn went for the big bucks.

Some people look at a disaster and see a way to grab some “free” money.

British Petroleum, which leased the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, paid $20 billion to settle lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the April 20, 2010, disaster. But the oil company believes there was substantial fraud by many trying to get a piece of the money.

When Thonn was sentenced in 2015, the oil company’s statement was two paragraphs long.

“The Court’s final judgment shows that the law is beginning to catch up with the fraudsters — and that the plaintiffs’ lawyers and other advisors who assist them will also not be permitted to benefit from that deceit.

“We agree with the Court’s pronouncement in April that Thonn’s fraud undermines the integrity of the entire Settlement Program, and while we remain committed to paying all legitimate claims, we never agreed to pay claims based on fraud or tainted by corruption.”

While Thonn was filing his settlement claims, he was represented by a firm formed by Jon Andry of New Orleans and Lerner, two Tulane University Law School friends who created this firm to handle BP oil spill claims.

Both lawyers, plus Sutton, were sanctioned by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans in February 2015 for “dishonesty, deceit and misrepresentations.” Then he said the hundreds of Andry Lerner oil spill clients had to find other attorneys, and the two attorneys lost their fees.

Lerner now is fighting an effort by the State Bar of Nevada to discipline him for professional misconduct based on the same set of facts as in New Orleans, including the handling of the Thonn case payments. No hearing date has been set yet.

Lerner’s defense is ignorance and shifting the blame to Andry and Sutton.

Barbieri didn’t buy that defense. I doubt the state bar will either.

The movie focused on the horror of the event itself. It didn’t delve into the massive environmental damage or the complex legal battles that have continued for six years.

The first part of the movie established who was a good guy and who was a bad guy, then explained the construction and operation of an oil rig itself. Then it explained how the poor decisions based on saving money ultimately created the disaster.

Bored with the technical aspects, half a dozen young people walked out just a few minutes before the real drama began. But once that drama began, it became clear that no amount of money could compensate for the 11 dreadful deaths and injuries. The movie does a fine job of showing how tough the choice would be between remaining on the burning rig or jumping into water covered by burning oil.

Death by fire is a ghastly way to go.

But deliberate fraud is pretty ghastly as well. Just not as dramatic.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column runs Thursdays. Leave messages for her at 702-383-0275 or email jmorrison@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @janeannmorrison

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