US Appeals Court Sets a Precedent Punishing Baker Hostetler Lawyers for Switching Sides from Crime Victims to Perpetrators in the Magnitsky Case

October 17, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

US Appeals Court Sets a Prece­dent Pun­ish­ing Bak­er Hostetler Lawyers for Switch­ing Sides from Crime Vic­tims to Per­pe­tra­tors in the Mag­nit­sky Case

 

17 Octo­ber 2016 – In a prece­dent-set­ting deci­sion, today the US Court of Appeals has dis­qual­i­fied US lawyers – Bak­er Hostetler and its part­ner John Moscow — from rep­re­sent­ing alleged Russ­ian mon­ey laun­der­ers in the Mag­nit­sky case.

 

“This case presents the “extra­or­di­nary cir­cum­stances” nec­es­sary to grant a writ of man­damus. …we …instruct the dis­trict court to enter an order dis­qual­i­fy­ing John Moscow and Bak­er Hostetler,” said the US Court of Appeals for the Sec­ond Cir­cuit in the rul­ing issued today.

 

“The issue involved is sig­nif­i­cant and will aid in the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice,” said the US Courts of Appeals.

 

“This case impli­cates a sig­nif­i­cant and nov­el ques­tion of law regard­ing the rights of non-par­ty clients,” said the US Court of Appeals.

 

The US Court of Appeals said in its decision:

 

“The court has rec­og­nized that crime wit­ness­es, as well as wit­ness­es, pos­sess legit­i­mate inter­ests in crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings that may sup­port dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion… For these pur­pos­es, we see no rea­son why a non-par­ty vic­tim is not enti­tled to the same solic­i­tude as a non-par­ty witness.”

 

Pre­ve­zon, a Cyprus com­pa­ny owned by the son of senior Russ­ian offi­cial, is alleged by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice to have laun­dered pro­ceeds from the US$230 mil­lion fraud against Her­mitage, uncov­ered by Hermitage’s lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky.

 

In 2008, Her­mitage hired Bak­er Hostetler and John Moscow to inves­ti­gate the US$230 mil­lion fraud and bring its per­pe­tra­tors and ben­e­fi­cia­ries to jus­tice through pur­su­ing pros­e­cu­tions and asset freezes by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice. Her­mitage also sought Bak­er Hostetler’s help in seek­ing Magnitsky’s release from the Russ­ian police custody.

 

In 2013, in a spec­tac­u­lar breach of duty to the for­mer client, Bak­er Hostetler switched sides and start­ed to act for Pre­ve­zon, an alleged ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the US$230 mil­lion fraud in the law­suit in New York brought by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, and began attack­ing Her­mitage, its for­mer client, as part of Prevezon’s strategy.

 

Fol­low­ing a review of the court record, the US Court of Appeals has now instruct­ed the dis­trict court to dis­qual­i­fy John Moscow and Bak­er Hostetler for breach­ing its duty of loy­al­ty and con­fi­den­tial­i­ty to their for­mer client, Her­mitage, the vic­tim of the Russ­ian $230 mil­lion fraud.

 

Recit­ing pre­vi­ous US court rul­ings, the US Court of Appeals reaf­firmed that “the preser­va­tion of the con­fi­dences between lawyer and client “touch­es upon vital con­cerns of the legal pro­fes­sion and the public’s inter­est in the scrupu­lous admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice.”

 

The US Court of Appeals has also upheld the rights of crime vic­tims in see­ing that their lawyers do not switch sides to rep­re­sent crime perpetrators:

 

“The peti­tion here also impli­cates the government’s abil­i­ty to pro­cure assis­tance from crime vic­tims. If crime vic­tims fear that the attor­neys they hire may turn against them, they may be less like­ly to assist gov­ern­ment in its inves­ti­ga­tions.”

 

In 2008, Hermitage’s lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in it. He was false­ly arrest­ed by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, detained for 358 days with­out tri­al, tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37. After his death, Russ­ian author­i­ties posthu­mous­ly accused Sergei Mag­nit­sky of the crime he had uncov­ered and exon­er­at­ed all offi­cials. Hermitage’s glob­al jus­tice cam­paign has result­ed in iden­ti­fy­ing ben­e­fi­cia­ries of funds laun­dered from the crime Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered and a num­ber of pro­ceed­ings around the world. Pre­ve­zon is sub­ject to mon­ey laun­der­ing pro­ceed­ings opened in the USA and Switzerland.

 

The events of this case are described in the New-York Times best-sell­er “Red Notice” by William Brow­der and in a series of cam­paign videos on Youtube chan­nel “Russ­ian Untouchables.”

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

 

 

 

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