Former attorney Paul Nicoletti

Today, after deliberating for about 1.5 hours, a Detroit jury found a former porn copyright troll Paul Nicoletti (X-Art / Malibu Media) guilty on four counts of bank fraud. This prosecution was not related to Nicoletti’s porn trolling activity, although these events were not surprising: copyright trolling attracts all kinds of shady people.

Nicoletti was indicted in June 2015. After that, in what appears to be attempts to game the system, he managed to secure a delay after delay: I lost the count of judge’s orders to postpone trial and how many public defenders Nicoletti fired to buy more time.

I covered the indictment and subsequent events until I stopped about a year ago. If you are curious, you can fill the gaps by looking at the docket: you’ll find some interesting documents there (e.g., this one).

In this case the proverbial wheels of justice have been grinding particularly slow.

The sentencing was set to 9/24/2019.



Updates

6/4/2019

On 5/29/2019, the Michigan Disciplinary board automatically suspended Nicoletti’s law license. In the meantime, Nicoletti stays defiant and plans to file a Rule 29(c) Motion for a Judgment of Acquittal.

9/13/2019

The sentencing has been delayed till 12/12/2019.

11/24/2019

Reset Deadlines/Hearings as to Paul Nicoletti: Sentencing reset for 1/30/2020 at 2:00 PM before District Judge Victoria A. Roberts in Courtroom 1080. Government’s sentencing memorandum or motion due: 1/9/2020; Defendant’s sentencing memorandum or motion due: 1/16/2020. (LVer)

01/31/2020

Yesterday Paul Nicoletti was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison + 2 years of supervised release and has to pay $5.3 million in restitution.

DOJ press release

The Oakland press: Former attorney Paul Nicoletti sentenced for bogus mortgage scheme