Michael McAuliffe Leaves Top Prosecutor Job to Work for Bill Koch, Litigious Billionaire

Kim Sargent

Bill Koch helps keep lawyers employed.

​Only in Palm Beach is such a pairing possible. State Attorney Michael McAuliffe is abandoning his bid for a second term as the county's top prosecutor in order to work for Bill Koch, the Palm Beach billionaire.

According to the Palm Beach Post, McAuliffe plans to join the legal team at Oxbow Corp., Koch's coal, oil, and gas company headquartered in West Palm.

Koch is the brother of Charles and David Koch, who have gained recent fame as the sugar daddies behind the Tea Party. (Read our profile of "The Other Koch Brother" here.) While "Wild Bill" has kept a much lower political profile than his brothers -- though he's currently on Mitt Romney's Florida fundraising team -- he's always found use for a good lawyer. Some of his most salacious legal adventures:

-- In the '80s, he sued his brothers, alleging corporate mismanagement of the family oil company, Koch Industries. Their legal fight dragged on for nearly two decades.

-- When he tried to evict his mistress from a condo he owned at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, she filed a palimony suit against him. Then the whole world got to read their love notes.

-- In 2006, Bill sued the wine broker who sold him bottles of wine that purportedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

-- Last summer, Oxbow sued Warren Buffett's railroad companies, alleging that Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad companies were conspiring to drive up costs for shipping coal.

So, it's safe to say McAuliffe will have his hands full working for Koch. Maybe it will be easier than prosecuting corruption in Palm Beach County.