Although the State Bar is investigating him and criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos in connection with $17.5 million in Armenian Genocide settlement funds, attorney Brian Kabateck denies any wrongdoing.
“Any allegation that Mark Geragos and Brian Kabateck participated in the claims decisions is false,” Kabateck told the Southern California Record in an email. “Attorneys Mark Geragos and Brian Kabateck were consistently cleared.”
The State Bar of California’s Board of Trustees Chair Ruben Duran announced the investigation in September, but an outcome has not yet been determined.
Geragos in court
| file photo
“This case has been investigated no less than six times by the state bar and other investigations,” Kabateck said. “The perpetrators of any fraud, Vartkes Yeghiayan, and Berj Boyadjian, were prosecuted.”
Berj Boyajian is a Beverly Hills attorney who pleaded no contest to making false claims about the class-action insurance lawsuit to the State Bar and retired his law license. Boyajian was not imprisoned. Glendale attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan, who worked with Geragos and Kabateck on the case, died before the allegations of misappropriating charity money could be adjudicated.
“Federal District Court Judge Christine Snyder supervised the entire settlement,” Kabateck added. “All of the charity money has been accounted for and reported to the Court.”
Kabateck is a past president of the L.A. County Bar Association and current chair of Loyola Law School’s governing board.
In 2014, the state bar closed a complaint against Kabateck stating that “suspicion is not a basis for investigation," according to the LA Times.
In April, four Democrat politicians called for an investigation into the settlement after the Los Angeles Times published a report alleging a 92% rejection rate of claims submitted by family members of victims. Those members of Congress include Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), as well as state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) who is chair of the state Senate Appropriations Committee.
As previously reported in LA Mag, Geragos has accused the LA Times of being a corrupt organization and alleges that their report against him is retaliation for refusing to allow their reporters to interview one of his clients.
The State Bar declined to discuss specifics of the investigation, but said September’s announcement regarding the investigation was made according to California Business and Professions Code section 6086.1(b)(2), which authorizes the State Bar’s Board Chair to confirm the fact of an investigation.
“As a general matter, the State Bar and the State Bar Court are authorized to solely pursue and adjudicate attorney discipline,” the Bar told the Southern California Record in an email. “Where warranted, the State Bar is also authorized by law (Business and Professions Code section 6044.5) to refer information to government agencies responsible for enforcement of civil and criminal laws.”