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Philly lawyer disbarred for laundering money for Baltimore crime family

J. Michael Farrell worked with the so-called “Nicka Organization,” a crime family based in Baltimore.

The investigation is the third massive U.S. money-laundering case targeting members of Venezuela's young business elites who allegedly paid millions in bribes to government officials for access to billions in oil income, according to sources familiar with the probe. (Dreamstime/TNS)
The investigation is the third massive U.S. money-laundering case targeting members of Venezuela's young business elites who allegedly paid millions in bribes to government officials for access to billions in oil income, according to sources familiar with the probe. (Dreamstime/TNS)Read moreDreamstime / MCT
    by Sam Wood
    Published 

A Philadelphia lawyer who was convicted on six counts of laundering money for a multimillion-dollar drug ring, was disbarred this week in Pennsylvania by the state’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

J. Michael Farrell, 65, is serving a three-year federal sentence in Philadelphia. His license to practice law has been suspended since 2017, when a jury found him guilty on a total of 10 charges that also included witness tampering.

Federal prosecutors said that from 2009 to 2013, Farrell worked with the so-called Nicka Organization, a crime family based in Baltimore that distributed thousands of pounds of illegal marijuana throughout the Mid-Atlantic states. A 2009 Drug Enforcement Administration raid on the group’s headquarters turned up 80 pounds of marijuana, 30 cell phones, and a ledger showing $14 million in marijuana sales. Evidence also implicated Farrell — who had an office in the 700 block of Arch Street — with concealing the origin of the organization’s ill-gotten earnings.

During his 15-day trial, witnesses testified that Farrell deposited drug money into his own account and concealed its source; paid for legal representation for other conspirators; and bought and sent money orders to jailed members of the crime family.

The three alleged leaders of the drug organization — David D’Amico, of Baltimore; Matthew Nicka, of Baltimore; and Gretchen Peterson, of Kennett Square — pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to less than 10 years in prison.

Farrell is scheduled to be released from a residential reentry center in July.