Convicted William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham, Jr.--two of the three plaintiffs lawyers accused of scamming 440 Kentuckian fen-phen plaintiffs

federal district court jury in Frankfurt convicted William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham, Jr.--two of the three plaintiffs lawyers accused of scamming 440 Kentuckian fen-phen plaintiffs--on nine counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy.The conviction followed a seven-week trial, which featured testimony from Chelsey, who appeared under an immunity agreement with prosecutors. According to a story in the Louisville Courier-Journal, assistant U.S. attorney E.J. Walbourn told jurors in closing arguments that the defendants "treated their own clients like a gravy train" and "got caught with their hands in the cookie jar." The men face as much as 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.The convicted lawyers said they would appeal. "We really feel that there are many legal issues that need to be looked at on appeal," Steven Dobson, the lawyer for Cunningham, told reporters following the verdict. "I'm so disappointed for him and his family."Cunningham and Gallion were convicted on all nine counts upon which they were charged, which consisted of eight wire fraud counts and one conspiracy count. The men face up to 20 years in prison. Click here and here for stories from the Cincinnati Enquirer and Bloomberg. Click here, here, here, and here for earlier LB posts.The crux of the charges against the pair involved whether they had distributed enough of a $200 million fen-phen settlement to their 440 clients. Prosecutors argued that the two men tried to keep well over half of the settlement, an amount that far exceeded the one-third provided by contracts made with the class members. Lawyers for the two men had argued that they were innocent, and that the defendants were inexperienced in handling large awards in class action lawsuits and had made mistakes. (In other words, we’re not criminals, we’re just bad lawyers.) Defense lawyers attempted to pin the blame on famed Cincinnati plaintiffs lawyer Stan Chesley, whom they had hired as a consultant for counsel in splitting up the settlement. Chesley was not charged. Last year’s six-week criminal trial was chock full of odd twists and turns. There were tales of drunken lawyers, charitable funds created for the benefit of the fen-phen attorneys, a judge admitting on the stand to being embarrassed by his handling of the case, and allegations of juror stalking.Topping off all the weirdness: Gallion and Cunningham are the former owners of the racehorse Curlin, a Breeder’s Cup Winner and twice named Horse of the Year.