Pennsylvania: Ex-attorney general sentenced to jail, then cuffed in court; Update on Perry Cortese

From Yahoo News

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Former state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, once a rising star in state politics, left a courtroom in handcuffs on Monday after getting a 10- to 23-month sentence for a retaliation scheme a judge linked to her all-consuming ego. Kane, 50, also was sentenced to eight years of probation by a Montgomery County judge, who said Kane's need for revenge led her to break the law and then lie to a grand jury. Kane, who was accused of leaking secret investigative files to embarrass a rival prosecutor, was convicted of perjury and obstruction.
You can see the crime on Youtube at JUDGE ORDERS COP TO TASER PEACEFUL DEFENDANT IN COURT! MUST SEE VIDEO!

Aside from the conviction, Kane's political career will be remembered for her investigation of pornography that she said was being traded on state computers by judges, lawyers and other public employees. Two state Supreme Court justices resigned amid the fallout.

Former Md. judge sentenced for ordering electrical shock for defendant
From Washington Post:
A former Maryland judge Thursday was sentenced to a year’s probation for ordering a Charles County sheriff’s deputy to administer an electrical shock to a defendant in his courtroom.

Robert C. Nalley, a former Circuit Court judge in Charles County, had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating the civil rights of the defendant, Delvon L. King, as King was about to be tried on a gun charge in 2014.


“To say that I’m chagrined to be standing here is an understatement,” Nalley said in brief remarks in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. Nalley said he felt “deep regret” over his “error in judgment,” which he said reflected not just on himself but also on his family and the Charles County justice system. Nalley did not apologize to King, who was in the spectators’ gallery a few feet away, or make any reference to him. You can see the crime on Youtube: 
JUDGE ORDERS COP TO TASER PEACEFUL DEFENDANT IN COURT! MUST SEE VIDEO!

MORE ON KERRVILLE'S OWN PERRY CORTESE!
Here's the full press release from DOJ
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 21, 2016
Jury Finds Texas Lawyer And Others Guilty Of International Money Laundering And Fraud Conspiracies

Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that a federal jury today found Perry Don Cortese (53, Little River, Texas), Priscilla Ann Ellis (51, Killeen, Texas), and Kenietta Rayshawn Johnson (35, Leavenworth, Kansas) guilty of conspiracy to commit international money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.  Each faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in federal prison.  Their sentencing hearings will be scheduled at a later date.

Cortese, Ellis, and Johnson were named in a superseding indictment on September 24, 2015.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Cortese, Ellis, and Johnson were members of an international criminal organization that defrauded dozens of victims across the United States and then laundered the funds, much of which were sent overseas.  The fraud schemes took several forms.  Many victims were law firms solicited online to perform legal work, provided counterfeit cashier’s checks for deposit into the firms’ trust accounts, and then directed to wire money to third-party shell businesses controlled by the conspirators.  Others were title companies defrauded in phony real estate transactions.  Other victims were targeted and defrauded by fake suitors on dating websites.  The conspiracy also employed hackers who compromised both individual and corporate e-mail accounts, ordering wire transfers from brokerage and business accounts to shell accounts controlled by conspirators.

Victims were instructed to wire money into funnel accounts held by conspirators, known as “money mules.” The funds were then quickly moved to other accounts in the United States and around the world before the victims could discover the fraud.  Bank records presented at trial indicate that, from 2012 to 2015, several millions dollars’ worth of wires were received in such accounts to be laundered.  Conspirators in Canada, Nigeria, South Korea, Senegal, and elsewhere helped coordinate the fraud and money laundering activity from abroad. 

Cortese, a licensed attorney in Texas, worked for the conspirators by laundering victim money through his interest on lawyers trust accounts (“IOLTAs”).  He also met with individuals in person to retrieve cash withdrawn from receiver accounts. Cortese recruited his paralegal and others to open such accounts to launder funds.  The evidence further showed that Johnson, then a bank employee at Capital One, helped create counterfeit checks and monitor money flows between accounts controlled by conspirators. 


This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from various federal and local law enforcement partners throughout the country, including the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Toronto Police Service in Ontario, Canada.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick Scruggs and Eric Gerard.