Font Size:

No Prison Time for Ex-Winston Partner Convicted in Money-Laundering Scheme

December 18, 2012

Batts held Bristol jointly and severally liable with Starr for $18.9 million in restitution, the amount that passed through two escrow accounts but not until Starr pays the first $5 million of the restitution he was ordered to pay by Judge Shira Scheindlin (See Profile). Starr is on the hook to pay a total of $30.1 million in restitution.

Bristol described himself as a child of divorce whose mother earned meager pay as a school crossing guard. He won a scholarship to a community college, transferred to Amherst and went on to earn his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

He said Starr offered him "a lot of razzmatazz—a lot of celebrities."

Bristol said he is now contrite, has accepted that he has a major depressive disorder, that he has "worked hard with my psychotherapist to get my head on straight" and will be on medication for the rest of his life. He also said his marriage has "since fallen apart" and he has lost his house as a result.

"I am now living alone with my dog in a small one-bedroom apartment," he said.

Kellman, a solo practitioner, said her client had shown "excruciatingly bad judgment" and had suffered the "tremendous humiliation" of having to surrender his law license.

"He had nothing, built everything and lost everything," she said. "I can't see my client in prison, although I know he's a survivor."

Bosworth said five years in prison was appropriate despite the fact "there is much that is sympathetic about Mr. Bristol's upbringing."

Bristol, he said, made Starr's extensive fraud possible and "he did it as an attorney, as an officer of the court" to try and "gain a glamorous life" and a "glamorous list of clients."

A longer sentence was needed, he said, to deter others and to deter other attorneys.

Subscribe to New York Law Journal

TOP JOBS