Prosecutors Stick Up for Farkas Defense Team

Prosecutors and defense lawyers, by the nature of their jobs, don’t often find themselves on the same side. But the tables have turned in Lee Farkas’s criminal case.

Mr. Farkas, the former chairman of the bankrupt Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., last year asked a judge to vacate his conviction for orchestrating a multibillion-dollar fraud due to the shoddy defense he says his lawyers put up. Federal prosecutors recently filed an objection that disputes the alleged shortcomings of Mr. Farkas’s lawyers.

Of course, it’s not out of the kindness of the prosecutors’ hearts that they stick up for the lawyers—at stake is the only major conviction obtained in the financial crisis, which government officials frequently trotted out to counter criticism about the lack of criminal cases against executives at the nation’s biggest financial institutions.

In the court filing, prosecutors point to the significant experience of Mr. Farkas’s legal team (one of whom is a former federal prosecutor). Mr. Farkas says his lawyers didn’t bring certain motions to protect him; the prosecution says the lawyers did. Mr. Farkas argued his lawyers weren’t well prepared to argue his case one last time at closing arguments; the prosecution says they were “sufficiently prepared” and made arguments that “one would expect a competent defense attorney to make given the evidence and the circumstance of this case.”

Whether Mr. Farkas’s lawyers were a dream team or legal nightmare, prosecutors say it wouldn’t have made a difference. After all, they said, Mr. Farkas’s trial presented “overwhelming evidence” of his guilt. You can read their full response here.

While Mr. Farkas, 61, is currently serving his 30-year sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, N.C., he has a new legal team and continues to profess his innocence. He has until March 27 to respond to prosecutors’ objection, court papers show.

Write to Jacqueline Palank at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @PalankJ.