Owen also castigated Wallach for accepting payments from Swiss oilman Bruce Rappaport to help sell Meese on a proposed $1 billion Iraqi oil pipeline. "It certainly was an obvious conflict of interest." The judge assailed Wallach about several matters not in the indictment, including his efforts to arrange a job for Meese's wife, Ursula, while Meese was considering a Justice Department job for Wallach. "You wanted those jobs all along," Owen said. Owen cited a memo in which Wallach, who had talked to Meese about becoming his chief of staff or solicitor general, told Meese that he felt "superior to" numerous Justice Department applicants he had screened on his friend's behalf. Meese, acting at Wallach's behest, said he wanted to ensure a fair hearing for Wedtech, which received the contract. The case began after disclosures that Meese, while White House counselor, had directed his White House staff to pursue Wedtech's complaints about problems in obtaining an Army engine contract. "There is a phrase, 'Too much success can bring failure,' and I am the epitome of it." Wallach's lawyer, Gary Naftalis, saying his client had "fallen from grace" and was $300,000 in debt, asked Owen to consider various "acts of goodness, generosity and decency" by Wallach. "To have made such blunders in my life, of course I feel remorse," he said softly. Wallach had asked that he be spared a prison term, in part out of consideration for his wife, three daughters and mother, 77. Wallach could be released after serving one-third of the six-year sentence. Owen sentenced Wallach to 18 years on four felony counts but allowed some of the terms to run concurrently. The two were ordered jointly liable for repayment of $1.1 million under racketeering laws and individually for lesser amounts. Rusty Kent London, 46, a Honolulu financial consultant, received a five-year prison term and was fined $250,000. Franklyn Chinn, 47, a San Francisco money manager and Meese's former investment adviser, was given three years in prison and fined $100,000. Two men convicted of helping Wallach conceal Wedtech payments and receiving bribes and fraudulent consulting fees also were sentenced today. Meese denounced the prosecutor before resigning from the Reagan administration in August 1988. The Wallach charges were among allegations in an independent counsel's investigation concluding that Meese "probably" violated criminal laws but that no prosecution was warranted. Meese, now a Heritage Foundation fellow and Washington consultant, said through a spokesman that he will make no comment until Wallach's appeals are exhausted. His lawyers have said he will appeal the conviction. Wallach, 55, remained impassive but looked pained when one of his daughters broke into tears in the front row during the judge's lecture. you committed perjury on the witness stand," Owen told Wallach. "Major government contract awards were being made because of your influence at the back stairs of the White House. In a long, blistering lecture, Owen described what he called a "litany" of wrongdoing by Wallach. before you even got the office," Owen said, referring to Wallach's conviction for accepting a $300,000 "advance payment" from Wedtech for services he agreed to render after receiving a high-level Justice Department post under Meese. to help that Bronx machine shop win federal contracts. District Judge Richard Owen, calling Wallach's behavior "sickening," also ordered the San Francisco personal-injury lawyer to forfeit $425,000 that he received from the now-defunct Wedtech Corp. Bob Wallach, whose efforts to trade on his 35-year friendship with former attorney general Edwin Meese III led to his conviction for fraud and racketeering, was sentenced today to six years in prison and fined $250,000.
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