Oakland Comp Attorney Pleads Guilty

Sacramento, CA - Marc Terbeek, an East Bay workers' compensation attorney who also represents marijuana dispensary operators appeared in federal court this month and admitted to counts one (29 U.S.C. § 186(a)(2)-Making A Payment To A Union Employee) and two (12 U.S.C. § 1956- Willful Violation of Anti-Structuring Regulation) of the Information filed in federal court case 4:17-cr-00087-HSG.

According to court documents, between 2010 and 2015, Terbeek paid money to "D.R." in exchange for having business improperly steered to him. The initials refer to Daniel Rush, who was at the time the organizing coordinator of the cannabis division of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

Rush was charged in 2015 in federal court with honest-services fraud and accepting payments in violation of the Taft-Hartley Act, which restricts the activities and power of labor unions. Rush's trial is set to begin in March.

Terbeek was allegedly involved in the massive corruption case filed by the FBI's Public Corruption and Civil Rights Squad. The FBI and IRS raided Terbeek’s office in January 2015 and since then he has been cooperating with investigators.

Daniel Rush was an official with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union that had established a "Cannabis Division" to organize dispensary employees. He was also closely involved in Measure D, the process to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, and also connected to legalization's most prominent pitchman: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

According to the allegations of paragraph 31 of the Affidavit , Tarbeek admitted to the FBI that he had been paying "kickbacks" to Rush for sending Terbeek legal work since 2004. Rush "encouraged" Terbeek to acquire a workers compensation law practice to litigate cases referred by the Insitutio Laboral de la Raza. In exchange Tarbeek gave Rush a credit card associated with Terbeek’s law firm and Terbeek paid it off routinely. Text messages confirmed this practice continued as late as February 2015. From 2010 to 2015, Rush spent $110,000 on Terbeek’s card, about $2,000 per month, for mostly personal expenses.

Also, Terbeek allegedly agreed to share legal fees with Rush derived from Terbeek’s clients seeking permits to operate dispensaries in California, Nevada, and beyond (Affidavit paragraph 34). After creation of this arrangement, Terbeek paid Rush $5000 as his "share" of the medical marijuana legal fees.

Terbeek's attorney, Ed Swanson said, "Mr. Terbeek has been fully cooperative with the government’s investigation of this case. He regrets his actions and accepts full responsibility for his conduct." The case was continued to May 22, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. for sentencing. 

California State Bar records reflect that there is no public record of discipline or administrative actions against Mr. Terbeek, and he remains an active member of the State Bar. Read More...

Source: WorkCompAcademy.com 

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