Who's Paying For These High Powered Lawyers? Prosecution Gives Court Heads Up About Conflict Of Interest In Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah Case In Downtown L.A.
By Lonce Lamonte - September 17, 2017
When the Reverend Sherry Schermbeck, Marisa Schermbeck Nelson’s former mother-in-law, asked this writer early last Summer, “Who’s paying for these high powered lawyers?” for the defendants in the Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah case in downtown Los Angeles, I thought it was a good question. A very legitimate question. Rev. Sherry brought up the question a few times. It really had her attention.
Sherry felt that her still-loved ex-daughter-in-law didn’t have any money. But she really didn’t know. She wanted to know what was going on with Marisa in court. She was concerned for Marisa and the grandchildren.
Marisa Schermbeck Nelson, for more than a decade, handled and controlled millions and millions of dollars in dozens of shell-company bank accounts ultimately owned and ultimately controlled by Dr. Munir Uwaydah. This included mega-millions of dollars of much fraudulently obtained and ultimately stolen money from workers’ compensation insurance payers.
Marisa has now since July of 2017 become the prosecution’s prime witness and informant. She could be testifying before the court as early as October 20th 2017. An abundance of faith will hopefully keep her loyal to the prosecution and prevent her from going back to do business with Uwaydah. Uwaydah’s an addiction that can only lead to a fatal overdose.
Marisa leaves Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center here in downtown L.A. on December 2, 2016. photo by Lonce Lamonte, all rights reserved
Marisa went back and did business with Uwaydah during her bankruptcy filing in 2012 after she had been warned not to transfer any money to Uwaydah by the Los Angeles District Attorney. Any transfer of assets to Uwaydah would be considered an overt criminal act. But she wound up taking Uwaydah’s carrot, and then she went to jail for nine months. She doesn’t have a strong will.
Marisa from her Facebook page in 2016
Her deal now is to tell-all to the prosecution and the court as a witness in exchange for a guilty plea she can withdraw in three years if she does her job well. Hopefully she will stick with her deal rather than get lured away by Uwaydah’s money once again. Hopefully she will not be beguiled by Uwaydah’s attorney, Benjamin Gluck, whose charm is hard to resist. Gluck could charm the rattles off of a rattlesnake if necessary.
After proffering to the Los Angeles District Attorney for the first time in June of 2010, Marisa wound up in 2012 transferring assets to Uwaydah. If she proffered in 2010 and then failed, will her proffer of 2017 alas be impervious and will she do her job well? Or will she fail again? Time will tell. So far, she doesn’t have a solid track record.
The prosecution has petitioned the court to conduct an inquiry into the actual and potential conflicts of interest into which possibly all the defense attorneys are currently embroiled. It is not known if all defense attorneys are being paid by Munir Uwaydah directly or from one of his shell companies that he fully controls, but it is of greatest certainly that Benjamin Gluck is being paid by Uwaydah, and that Lou Shapiro is being paid for by Uwaydah. Shapiro currently represents Peter Nelson, Uwaydah’s former physician assistant; and Benjamin Gluck represents Paul Turley, a chiropractor who served as Uwaydah’s main front-man. He’s a person this writer also refers to as “Uwaydah’s lackey”.
Lead prosecutor Dayan Mathai, for the Uwaydah case, left, and the head of the organized crime unit, John Nantroup, right, leave Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles on April 26th 2017. Dayan Mathai signed the August 2nd 2017 Petition to the court requesting an inquiry into the egregious conflict-of-interest issues that exist with defense attorneys being paid by crime boss Munir Uwaydah and/or having represented numerous defendants, co-conspirators, and witnesses in the case. photo by Lonce Lamonte, all rights reserved
The prosecution wants to bring this entire situation into the consciousness of Judge Larry Fidler before trial and now while moving deeper into pretrial. It is a violation of a defendant’s constitutional rights to be stuck with a conflicted defense counsel. A defendant must be made aware of any conflict, and then be allowed to make an intelligent and informed decision on whether to embrace and sign a waiver of conflict-of-interest and keep current counsel.
Any defendant must embrace a full awareness of any potential or actual conflict-of-interest. Any court, whether state or federal, has to embrace its power and discretion to recuse any lawyer whose conflicts are too great to be reasonably resolved with a client waiver and whose conflicts could realistically disqualify any verdict or plea bargain.
Here the prosecution is at risk that any verdicts could be overturned upon appeal, with conflicts of interest cited as the reason for the appeals. These counsels are rendered ineffective if they can’t argue, for example, the possibility of their clients’ lesser involvement in the conspiracy by emphasizing Dr. Uwaydah’s greater involvement. Every attorney receiving payment from Uwaydah is inhibited from this kind of testimony against Uwaydah as they have a natural loyalty to him.
The lawyer with the greatest loyalty to Munir Uwaydah is Benjamin Gluck. He has been the central criminal defense lawyer and also civil case lawyer to Dr. Uwaydah since the time the criminal investigation began—during 2010. That was the year Kelly Soo Park was arrested for Juliana Redding’s murder and Dr. Uwaydah, in reaction, fled to Lebanon. Uwaydah has not returned to the United States since.
Defense attorney Benjamin Gluck, shown here leaving Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on August 19th 2016, is under seige by the prosecution which alleges he has a multitude of conflicts-of-interest from every angle with numerous defendants, uncharged co-conspirators, and witnesses in the Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah case in downtown L.A.. photo by Lonce Lamonte, all rights reserved
According to the prosecution in their August 2nd 2017 Petition, Gluck at this time “remains the main counsel for Uwaydah and most of Uwaydah’s entities.” The Petition cites how in jail phone calls, Defendant Kelly Soo Park and her husband Tom Chronister referred to Uwaydah “not as a client of Gluck’s, but as ‘Benjamin’s boss.’” Husband Tom Chronister had said to Kelly Soo, “I talked to Benjamin’s boss and he’s there, he is going to make sure things happen.”
During the investigation phase beginning in June of 2010 that involved Search Warrants being run through Judge Larry Fidler’s court, Benjamin Gluck asserted himself as the criminal defense attorney for Munir Uwaydah. He also early on presented himself as counsel for Frontline Medical.
But he has represented many other co-defendants, as well, at different times in the past seven years, along with uncharged co-conspirators and potential prosecution witnesses. Almost everyone who has worked for Uwaydah has had Benjamin Gluck for his attorney at one time or another. In this manner Gluck has attorney-client privilege confidentiality with so many Uwaydah people that he can’t cross examine them as witnesses and he can’t use any information he gleaned from those relationships to defend his named client, Paul Turley. He cannot defend Paul Turley adequately and sufficiently when his hands are so tied with so many other co-conspirators and witnesses he has previously and rather recently represented and to whom he owes confidentiality. He also is a witness to many transactions within the criminal conspiracy. This conflicts him as defense counsel for Paul Turley because he is a potential prosecution witness to too many actions.
The prosecution asserts that Gluck has represented to them, as well as to multiple courts, both state and federal, that he is legal counsel for various business entities that are all “related” to one another in conjunction with Uwaydah and Frontline, but he fails to be transparent about how it is that these entities are related.
The prosecution writes in the Petition: “The evidence shows that these entities are all related due solely to the fact that his client, Uwaydah, controls them, financially and otherwise. The revelation of that fact would shine a light on false filings with insurance companies and state agencies, false filings, criminal behavior, and obvious conflicts of interest.”
Defense attorney Lou Shapiro, shown here leaving Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on April 11th 2016, is under fire from the prosecution for allegations of conflicts-of-interest for his representation of Peter Nelson in the instant case, and for representing co-defendant Ronnie Wayne Case in another related case in Ventura County. The prosecution believes Shapiro's work in Ronnie Case's Ventura County case over the transportation of illegal drugs is still ongoing and conflicts with the instant case. The prosecution also believes Dr. Munir Uwaydah, the organized crime boss, is paying Shapiro to represent physician assistant Peter Nelson. photo by Lonce Lamonte, all rights reserved.
The prosecution understands in view of the evidence that Gluck appointed certain lawyers to represent defendants in this case. “The evidence strongly suggests that his client, Uwaydah, is paying for many, if not all, of the defense attorneys in this case, most likely through one of his many shell companies. Rather than selecting their own attorney, many of the defendants in this case have been told who will be representing them. “
Marisa and her co-worker, Shelley Rosekelly, turned their laptops over to law enforcement and led them to a storage locker with many files from Uwaydah’s businesses and personal life in June of 2010. This was right in the wake of Kelly Soo Park’s arrest and Uwaydah’s departure.
Marisa and Shelley proffered to many agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, the FBI, the Homeland Security, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. One of the most prominent deputy district attorneys in recent Los Angeles history, Alan Jackson, is the one who told Marisa that if she transferred any money from any of the accounts of which she held sole signature authority to Uwaydah, that she would be held criminally liable, her actions would be considered overt acts which are criminal, and her proffer would be nullified.
But even while knowing Marisa would be charged with overt criminal acts, Benjamin Gluck hounded and pursued her in representation of Uwaydah. Marisa had millions of dollars in bank accounts Uwaydah claimed were his, and Uwaydah wanted the money. So, he put Gluck in charge of getting it.
Attorney Benjamin Gluck, shown here leaving Clara Shortridge Foltz CJC on October 6th 2016, as a main counsel for Dr. Uwaydah, was put in charge of getting millions of dollars out of the hands of Marisa Schermbeck Nelson and to Uwaydah or one of his "designees" after Uwaydah fled the U.S. in June of 2010 and Marisa proffered to the Los Angeles DA. Gluck pursued Marisa doggedly from June of 2010 until Marisa filed for bankruptcy in February 2012. It was through Marisa's bankruptcy that Gluck was able to manipulate the transfer of money held by the criminal organization through Marisa to Uwaydah by having Marisa sign fake documents and bamboozling the U.S. Trustee. photo by Lonce Lamonte, all rights reserved.
According to the evidence gathered by the DA, Gluck was well aware of the criminal investigation against his client, Dr. Uwaydah, and what would happen to Marisa if she forked over the money. But he didn’t hesitate in light of criminal liability hanging over Marisa—he was all out for Uwaydah’s interests. He told Robert Bernstein, Marisa’s criminal attorney during this investigation phase between 2010 and 2012, that the criminal conspiracy was the “beneficial owner” of the money.
That was part of Gluck’s dictionary: beneficial owner versus legal owner. In testimony in a deposition from Robert Bernstein, he stated that Gluck told him the criminal conspiracy is the beneficial owner of the money in Marisa’s accounts. Marisa may be the legal owner but Uwaydah was the beneficial owner.
This concept Bernstein didn’t understand. Bernstein testified that he and Benjamin Gluck “…agreed GSP (Golden State Pharmaceuticals) was a fraudulent operation he (Uwaydah) had, that it simply existed to run Dr. Uwaydah’s prescriptions as he’s the only doctor. We agreed to settle the Berkshire Hathaway lawsuit that GSP was billing for prescriptions for patients that never existed, millions and millions of dollars. And by him saying Dr. Uwaydah is the beneficial owner, therefore, the beneficiary of the criminal conspiracy he was saying was the owner, that he was entitled to that.”
The prosecution expresses in the Petition that this testimony is “especially troubling” because Gluck was aware of the criminal investigation into the Uwaydah organization, and that prosecutors were engaged in trying to seize fraudulent Uwaydah assets. It can be further conjectured that the prosecution was trying to get ahold of these assets for restitution to the workers’ compensation payers.
Judge Larry Fidler, of Department 106 at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown L.A., is now presiding over the case of Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah. He is shown here during the Phil Specter trial on May 23rd 2007.
But Benjamin Gluck was pushing Marisa to transfer the money to Uwaydah, while he knew Marisa had been warned that any transfer of assets by her or ANYONE would be considered an overt act in an ongoing criminal conspiracy. So, Gluck was pushing Marisa to commit an overt criminal act while he was acting as the catalyst. Although the prosecution does not state this in the Petition, it can be deduced through logic by any reader of the Petition that if Marisa had been warned by DDA Alan Jackson that any transfer of assets by her or anyone would be considered an overt act in an ongoing criminal conspiracy, Gluck’s demands for Marisa to transfer assets to Uwaydah are themselves conspiring. Thus, the attempt of Gluck to be the catalyst in a criminal act is right there. Why isn’t he a defendant? It begs the question. What’s more incriminating is that Gluck eventually got his way by way of Marisa’s harrowing vulnerability in her bankruptcy filing of 2012. He led her by the nose, and under massive duress Marisa transferred the money Gluck demanded on behalf of Uwaydah to Uwaydah.
It was on September 29th 2010 that the prosecution says Gluck communicated Uwaydah’s threats to Marisa. In an email to Robert Bernstein, Gluck wrote: “Just so you know, if this thing (the negotiation) falls to pieces, Munir is going to have a new target to replace his GE (General Electric) as his lifelong nemesis.”
He went on to write that “Whether it makes sense or not, he’s (Uwaydah’s) going to go after Marisa forever and ever in every possible forum.” Gluck was the communicator of that threat; then, he was the one who acted upon it. It was indeed Benjamin Gluck who as Uwaydah’s lawyer sued Marisa in civil court, not once but twice. These were the cases that wound up in the court room of Judge Teresa Sanchez Gordon in Stanley Mosk Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles in 2011.
Just after Benjamin Gluck's emails of September 29, 2010, Robert Bernstein told Benjamin that Marisa would not transfer the money, as she was under criminal liability if she did so. Another Uwaydah attorney, Richard Green, just the day after Marisa retained Robert Bernstein, showed up uninvited and with no prior announcement at Bernstein’s office. He delivered Marisa a warning, “Marisa doesn’t want to fuck with Uwaydah.”
This action from Richard Green is classic legal thuggery. These are the types of lawyers Uwaydah hires. In fact, a preponderance of people Uwaydah hires are thugs: Kelly Soo Park and Ronnie Wayne Case are two such examples.
This case is so much bigger than fraud against California workers’ compensation payers. That’s one center where one can focus, but it extends further around the whole world. It's so beyond the boundaries of insurance fraud. It abuses humanity on many levels.
It’s organized crime. There’s no getting around it.
Uwaydah has to stop being allowed to manipulate the courts from his oasis in Beirut. His money needs to be shut off and shut down from paying for these defendants’ legal counsels.
lonce@adjustercom.com
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