New York City Law Firm Paralegal Pleads Guilty to Stealing Trial Plan

October 4, 2001

MARY JO WHITE, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that YEAZID FARRAJ pled guilty in Manhattan federal court late yesterday to conspiracy to commit computer fraud, wire fraud, and interstate transportation of stolen goods in connection with his scheme to sell to opposing counsel a confidential trial plan prepared by the law firm of Orrick, Harrington & Sutcliffe LLP ("Orrick") in a major tobacco-related civil litigation titled Falise, et al. v. American Tobacco Co., et al., CV 99-7392 (JBW) (E.D.N.Y.) ("Falise").

On September 27, 2001, SAID FARRAJ, the brother of YEAZID FARRAJ, also pled guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy and substantive counts of computer fraud and interstate transportation of stolen goods in connection with the same scheme.

According to the Indictment, between May 20, 2000, and June 18, 2000, SAID FARRAJ was employed as a paralegal at the New York office of Orrick, which was one of several law firms that represented the plaintiffs in the Falise litigation, a mass tort case scheduled to go to trial on July 17, 2000, in the Eastern District of New York.

According to the Indictment, in anticipation of the Falise trial, attorneys working for Orrick spent hundreds of hours preparing a trial plan at a cost of several million dollars. The Trial Plan exceeded 400 pages, and included, among other things, trial strategy, deposition excerpts and summaries, and references to anticipated trial exhibits. In his capacity as a paralegal working on the Falise litigation, SAID FARRAJ had access to the Trial Plan.

On or about June 14, 2000, according to the Indictment, SAID FARRAJ obtained an electronic copy of the Trial Plan by downloading it from the Orrick computer system, and three days later, using the alias "FlyGuyNYt," transmitted an e-mail via the Internet to attorneys for the defendants in the Falise litigation at their offices in Georgia, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina. The-mail stated that "FlyGuyNYt" had a copy of the Trial Plan, and offered to sell it to the defense attorneys for their use in the upcoming Falise trial; the e-mail was sent with an attachment containing approximately 80 pages of the Trial Plan.

Thereafter, according to the Indictment, SAID FARRAJ, negotiated the sale of the Trial Plan with an undercover agent of the FBI who was posing as one of the defense counsel in the Falise litigation (the "Undercover Agent"). Between June and July 2000, according to the Indictment, SAID FARRAJ transmitted to the Undercover Agent various e-mails via the Internet, in which he agreed to sell the Trial Plan for $2 million, and in which he discussed the manner of exchanging the Trial Plan for the money.

As described in the Indictment, SAID FARRAJ agreed that the Undercover Agent’s representative would bring $2 million in cash to a public location where SAID FARRAJ’s courier would, upon verification that the Undercover Agent’s representative had brought the money, arrange for the entire Trial Plan to be e-mailed to one of the Falise defendants’ counsel.

According to the Indictment, on July 21, 2000, YEAZID FARRAJ, SAID FARRAJ’s brother, traveled to a McDonald’s restaurant located at 160 Broadway in Manhattan, where YEAZID FARRAJ met with another undercover agent, and stated, among other things, that he had seen the entire Trial Plan and it was authentic; the entire Trial Plan would be sent as soon as YEAZID FARRAJ informed his "friend" that he had received the entire $2 million; his "friend" was located in Staten Island, New York, and would send the Trial Plan to defense counsel within one minute of his call to his "friend" in Staten Island; and after e-mailing the Trial Plan to the defense lawyers, he and his "friend" planned on destroying the computer used to send the Trial Plan.

YEAZID FARRAJ, 25, and SAID FARRAJ, 28, are residents of Staten Island, New York.

YEAZID FARRAJ faces a maximum sentence on the conspiracy charge of five years in prison.

SAID FARRAJ faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy, five years in prison for substantive computer fraud and 10 years in prison for interstate transportation of stolen property.

YEAZID FARRAJ is scheduled to be sentenced on January 18, 2002, before United States District Judge VICTOR MARRERO; SAID FARRAJ is scheduled to be sentenced on February 1, 2002, by Judge MARRERO.

Ms. WHITE praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its outstanding investigation of this case.

Assistant United States Attorneys ROBERT R. STRANG and JOSEPH V. DE MARCO are in charge of the prosecution.

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