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I can’t see this standing up in court. Is there any case law saying that threats of legal action can be construed as extortion? There are thousands of legal de

by adrr 6y ago

I can’t see this standing up in court. Is there any case law saying that threats of legal action can be construed as extortion? There are thousands of legal demand letters that go out everyday.

zenexer 6y ago
They already pleaded guilty; the link was changed to an outdated article. (See comment below by dang.) The extortion is this: 1. They were responsible, in part, for suing Company 1, presumably in the high-profile Monsanto lawsuits. 2. They offered Company 1 a deal: if Company 1 bribed them for $200M, they would deliberately throw the case. 3. Company 1 reported that misconduct to the DoJ. 4. Assuming Company 1 is Monsanto, the original lawsuits were successful; one case in particular awarded two plaintiffs $1B each. The extortion here is that the lawyers were offering to throw the case and cost Company 1 only $200M instead of (presumably) $2B+, plus legal fees.
- adrr 6y ago
  Interesting, the real crime is that they weren’t acting in the best faith for their clients. Still doesn’t make sense as an extortion case unless soliciting bribes falls under extortion.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    The federal extortion statute, most specifically 18 USC 875(d), seems quite applicable here: “(d)Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another or the reputation of a deceased person or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” Bribery, on the other hand, under federal law requires that the person being bribed is a public official, outside of special provisions relating to sporting contests and port security (separate provisions, not common to those two circumstances.) Well, and one other inverted scenario involving Members of Congress, etc., bribing private entities by using official acts to sway hiring decisions on partisan political grounds. But nothing that seems applicable to the kind of thing going on here.
zaroth 6y ago
You may have heard of a guy named Michael Avenatti...
- adrr 6y ago
  He didn’t threaten legal action. He would need a victim to represent if it was legal action.
  - zaroth 6y ago
    > He demanded that Nike hire him to conduct an internal investigation into its criminal exposure, prosecutors said, contending that he had alternatively requested $22.5 million to buy his silence and resolve potential claims by a youth basketball coach whom he said he represented.

by adrr 6y ago

I can’t see this standing up in court. Is there any case law saying that threats of legal action can be construed as extortion? There are thousands of legal demand letters that go out everyday.

zenexer 6y ago

They already pleaded guilty; the link was changed to an outdated article. (See comment below by dang.) The extortion is this: 1. They were responsible, in part, for suing Company 1, presumably in the high-profile Monsanto lawsuits. 2. They offered Company 1 a deal: if Company 1 bribed them for $200M, they would deliberately throw the case. 3. Company 1 reported that misconduct to the DoJ. 4. Assuming Company 1 is Monsanto, the original lawsuits were successful; one case in particular awarded two plaintiffs $1B each. The extortion here is that the lawyers were offering to throw the case and cost Company 1 only $200M instead of (presumably) $2B+, plus legal fees.

adrr 6y ago
Interesting, the real crime is that they weren’t acting in the best faith for their clients. Still doesn’t make sense as an extortion case unless soliciting bribes falls under extortion.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  The federal extortion statute, most specifically 18 USC 875(d), seems quite applicable here: “(d)Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another or the reputation of a deceased person or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” Bribery, on the other hand, under federal law requires that the person being bribed is a public official, outside of special provisions relating to sporting contests and port security (separate provisions, not common to those two circumstances.) Well, and one other inverted scenario involving Members of Congress, etc., bribing private entities by using official acts to sway hiring decisions on partisan political grounds. But nothing that seems applicable to the kind of thing going on here.

zaroth 6y ago

You may have heard of a guy named Michael Avenatti...

adrr 6y ago
He didn’t threaten legal action. He would need a victim to represent if it was legal action.
- zaroth 6y ago
  > He demanded that Nike hire him to conduct an internal investigation into its criminal exposure, prosecutors said, contending that he had alternatively requested $22.5 million to buy his silence and resolve potential claims by a youth basketball coach whom he said he represented.