Jersey Shore reality TV show star Michael ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has appointed a new attorney to represent him in his federal tax fraud case. Henry Klingeman, a Newark based lawyer, has said that he is looking forward to being of assistance to Sorrentino, and the court moving forward with the case.
Case Details
Klingeman is no stranger to reality TV stars, with ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ star TeresaGiudice amongst his former clients. Guidice is currently serving time in prison after pleading guilty to tax related charges.
Along with his brother Marc, Sorrentino has pleaded not guilty to charges against them alleging that they filed bogus tax returns on almost $9m, and claimed millions of dollars’ worth of personal expenses as business expenses.
Mike Sorrentino faces two counts of filing false returns, whilst Marc, his brother, has been charged with three counts. Each brother is also facing a count of conspiracy. The charges also claim that Sorrentino failed to file a tax return in 2011, although during that year he made over $1.95 million dollars. Allegedly, the brothers conspired to fail to pay federal taxes on the income generated by two companies that they controlled, Situation Nation, Inc., and MPS Entertainment, LLC. Claims say that they listed expensive clothing and cars as business expenses as well as funneling company money into their personal accounts.
In August, Sorrentino’s first attorney quit the case, saying that the defendant had failed to pay his legal bills. A trial is not expected to take place before December.
Further Delays
This is not the first time that the trial has been delayed. At the end of 2014, a judge granted Marc’s request to delay the trial until March of 2015, which gave both of the brothers, who were free on $250,000 bail, more time as the case involved voluminous records.
Before this, Sorrentino requested to delay a court appearance in order to be able to record “Marriage Boot Camp” in Los Angeles from October 5 to October 19.
The Consequences
If Sorrentino and his brother Marc are convicted of the charges against them, they are more than likely to be looking at something more than probation. In a similar case, singer Lauryn Hill made a guilty plea regarding three counts of failure to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million between 2005 and 2007. Although she did not get the probation alone which she originally requested, she was sentenced only to three months of incarceration – a good deal compared to the 24-36 months that she originally faced with a not guilty plea. As with Wesley Snipes, the situation could have been a far worse one if she had filed false tax returns. Although there are sentencing guidelines, the judge also has discretion, which can in some cases make similar missteps seem to be disparately treated.
Since Sorrentino and his brother have pleaded not guilty. If they are found to be otherwise they will likely be facing months or even years of jail time.
A customer of daily fantasy sports from Kentucky has filed not one but four different lawsuits against both daily fantasy sports companies, Draft Kings and FanDuel. The lawsuit filed claims the customer says he wouldn’t have even played daily fantasy sports if he knew that the employees of the companies and sites were actually playing the game themselves and were also revealing private insider information about the game allowing them to win as much as millions of dollars at the expenses of the customers playing the game also.
Class Action Lawsuit
According to a report by USA Today, the plaintiff, Adam Johnson, filed these lawsuits on behalf of himself and other customers after finding out about the insider in the daily fantasy sports sites using the inside information to win money on the expense of the customers of both sites. The lawsuit was filed in New York and is a class action suit.
In fact, an employee of the site, Draft Kings had won $350,000 in a contest on FanDuel during the same week that he ended up leaking the private information that reveals the hottest players to own during that week. Draft King and FanDuel are two rival sites with a similar business model. They allow those interested to play fantasy sports on their site and win money.
Employees Won as Much as $6 Million Playing on Rival Site
According to the lawsuit filed by the plaintiff, Draft King employees have won as much as $6 million playing on the rival fantasy sports site, FanDuel. Not only this but there was an article on the site that stated that FanDuel profiled one of its own employees, who played on the other site and who had won $50,000 on the site in a short amount of time. However, the article has since been taken down off the site which has also been noted in the lawsuit.
The suit also said this:
Plaintiff and the proposed classes would not have deposited money or engaged in any activity on the defendants’ website if they had known that they were competing against individuals with insider knowledge, access and use of non-public data.
Internal Investigation
Both fantasy sports sites, FanDual and Draft Kings have announced this week that they have hired outside attorneys to look over the inside controls of fraud and have also forbidden employees from playing fantasy games for money. According to both companies, they will be conducting their own internal investigation, reports CBS News.
FBI And U.S. Department Of Justice Investigate Daily Fantasy Sports
Although both sites have now forbidden their employees from playing the games for money, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has asked both sites to turn over their internal investigation they performed about the employee that was playing with insider information. Also, the state of Nevada has ordered that the sites be shut down in the state.
These fantasy sports sites have become more and more popular with both sites using TV and internet ads to bring in new customers every day to play their favorite fantasy sport game for the chance to win some money.
There are many reasons why people choose to use social media for their public relations of their business. Even though social media for public relations of a business is widely spread, it is a less common with a legal pr firms especially. There are numerous reasons why this might be the case. However, there are many advantages to using social media for your public relations especially if you are running a law firm.
Why Do Law Firms Avoid Using Social Media?
It is evident that the presence of law firms is not as frequent in social media as all other businesses. It seems like a law firms still prefer a traditional ways of advertising in the press, on television, and other methods which have existed for a longer period of time. However, there is one specific reason why law firms avoid using social media. Namely, the establishers of law firms are not the generation which is accustomed to social media, and this has one of the many reasons why they prefer other types of advertising and other ways of managing their public relations.
Social Media 2015
Why Your Law Firm Should Use Social Media?
Even though this might be the case, still your law firm would much benefit if you chose to use social media as a way to handle your public relations. Firstly, you want be able to reach your customer base. This is tremendously important because you want be able to provide them with the relevant information and you would be able to get an immediate feedback. The communication that occurs between the client base and the legal management is precisely the thing that will make your business more successful and more productive. Think of it this way, we live in the time when social media is ever present, your customer base will expand tremendously just by using social media. Also, if your opponents fail to use these methods of public relations you will be able to reach the customer base which is completely new to your business.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Social Media?
Even though there are much more reasons why you showed use social media and much more advantages to using social media in your public relations, we must also consider some of the disadvantages which are probable to occur. Even though social media might seem inexpensive, in reality there are soft costs which should be paid. Therefore, you will still have some of the costs. Furthermore, social media allows people to criticize you and your business openly and in front of a large auditorium. These people might not even show their real identity, but that is not important in the world of social media. Unfortunately, you all are opening the gate of the world where everyone is able to reach you literally all the time and it gave expected of you to respond at all times and they are allowed to criticize you and your law firm.
Mike Sorrentino faces two counts of filing false returns, whilst Marc, his brother, has been charged with three counts. Each brother is also facing a count of conspiracy. The charges also claim that Sorrentino failed to file a tax return in 2011, although during that year he made over $1.95 million dollars. Allegedly, the brothers conspired to fail to pay federal taxes on the income generated by two companies that they controlled, Situation Nation, Inc., and MPS Entertainment, LLC. Claims say that they listed expensive clothing and cars as business expenses as well as funneling company money into their personal accounts.
Further Delays
In fact, an employee of the site, Draft Kings had won $350,000 in a contest on FanDuel during the same week that he ended up leaking the private information that reveals the hottest players to own during that week. Draft King and FanDuel are two rival sites with a similar business model. They allow those interested to play fantasy sports on their site and win money.
