UPDATE: Richard Simring Pleads Guilty — Set to Testify Against Ed Okun

Richard B. Simring, the attorney charged with mail fraud and money laundering in the 1031 exchange scam led by Ed Okun, has pled guilty and agreed to testify against Okun.

According to a report in the ABA Journal based on a story in the National Law Journal, Simring “entered the plea in July in the Eastern District of Virginia, but few were aware of the development… Simring has agreed to testify against the businessman, billionaire Ed Okun, as part of the deal, Simring’s lawyer, Brian Tannebaum, told the National Law Journal. Simring faces up to five years in prison.”

The article in theNational Law Journal provides a few more details:

“Simring took the plea deal, in which he faces a possible five years in prison and must testify against his former boss, before a grand jury could indict him, according to his lawyer, Brian Tannebaum of Miami’s Tannebaum Weiss. ‘He’s taking responsibility for what the government says he did,’ Tannebaum said. ‘He didn’t want to roll the dice and face… a jury’.”

“Facing 12 to 14 years in prison and having just become a father for the second time, Simring pleaded guilty, said Tannebaum. He’s agreed to testify against Okun and faces a maximum five years in prison.  Tannebaum said Simring — who has no record of Bar complaints or crime — regrets going to work for Okun. ‘If he had it to do all over again he wouldn’t make the same choices,’ Tannebaum said.”

“Simring has notified the Florida Bar of his charges and agreed to temporarily stop practicing law. The Bar will appoint a referee to determine whether to impose any disciplinary action, which sources say will likely mean suspension.”