{Louisville, Kentucky}...Tuesday, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves did not err in the case of 61 year old William Galliion and 57 year old Shirley Cunningham Jr., two former attorneys serving prison time for scamming clients out of $94.6 million from a $200 million settlement over the diet drug fen-phen. Galliion and Cunningham had argued the errors denied them a fair trial. Gallion and Cunningham were convicted in 2009 of scamming more than 400 clients out of millions they had won against American Home Products, now known as Wyeth, a subsidiary of Pfizer. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that Gallion and Cunningham Jr. were properly ordered to repay their former clients $127,678,834 in restitution, the amount the clients were entitled to under the settlement without any reduction for fees the attorneys were due. Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote for the three-member panel that the two now-disbarred attorneys agreed to take $22 million each in attorney's fees, but "concocted a fraudulent scheme" to take twice as much from their clients. Gilman aggressively questioned prosecutors during oral arguments in January. Fen-phen was pulled from the market in 1997 after users had heart problems related to the drug.
