Controversies
In 1997, US Attorney Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island accused Luskin of "willful blindness" for accepting $505,125 in gold bars as well as Swiss Wire transfers of $169,000 from Stephen Saccoccia. Luskin represented Saccoccia in the appellate phase of the case after Saccoccia was convicted of money laundering. Whitehouse argued that Saccoccia's payments to Luskin were related to Saccoccia's broad money-laundering scheme and that the money should be returned to the government. William Moffitt, first VP of the National Association of Defense Lawyers, supported Luskin: "if the case gets a high profile they don't like the lawyer in it, they can immediately open this kind of assault," adding "if you plead your client guilty, they're never going to go after your fee. So there's an incentive here to give the government what it wants." In 1998, Luskin settled with the government, forfeiting $245,000 in fees. Whitehouse, on the other hand, went on to lose his 2002 gubernatorial bid due to civil rights controversies during his tenure as State Attorney General.
Read more about this topic: Robert Luskin