Charges Dropped Against Wedtech Lawyer Wallach

A federal judge has dismissed influence-peddling charges in the second trial of lawyer E. Robert Wallach, who was accused of taking payoffs from Wedtech Corp. to lobby former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III.

U.S. District Judge Richard Owen dismissed the charges Thursday when a jury failed to reach a verdict after more than three days of deliberations. Prosecutors said they didn’t know if they would refile the charges.

Wallach was convicted in August, 1989, of accepting $425,000 in illegal payments from the now-defunct defense contractor to influence Meese and other officials on government contracts.

A federal appeals court threw out the conviction in May, 1991, because a key government witness committed perjury. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a retrial of Wallach.

The charges stemmed from the collapse of Wedtech, a New York-based military contractor that benefited from huge government contracts steered toward minority-owned businesses. Prosecutors alleged the firm corrupted government officials as it grew into a $100-million-a-year company.