In the News Archive

Marc Scholl, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office, told Reuters that Trump being given an opportunity to testify suggests that the grand jury had heard evidence implicating him in a crime. "The invitation should mean the prosecutor is preparing to seek criminal charges."

The International Bar Association (IBA) has appointed partner Cristián Francos as Co-Chair of its Business Crime Committee for a two-year term.

Adam Kaufmann, who has served in the past as a top executive in the district attorney’s office and is now in private practice, said Pomerantz is exposing himself to “a lot of possible jeopardy from a bunch of different directions.”

The National Black Lawyers is an invitation-only professional development and networking association comprised of the top African American attorneys from across the country. 

Eric Lewis, a lawyer and expert on extraditions, said that Bankman-Fried’s decision to go along with extradition might have been due to his not wanting to spend months in a Bahamian jail, where conditions are notoriously bad. While Bankman-Fried has the legal right to challenge the extradition, prosecutors might view that negatively “when it comes time to look at both bail and a potential sentence.”

Adam Kaufmann and John Moscow, both former financial crimes prosecutors, are quoted in this article on the possibility that a judge will give Allen Weisselberg more jail time than the five months promised as part of his plea deal.

Art Middlemiss appeared on the Gatenox series "Crypto Compliance" to discuss the FTX scandal from a compliance perspective. 

El Departamento de Justicia de los Estados Unidos colocó en el ojo público la actividad de transferencia de dólares sin licencia habilitante en los Estados Unidos. Las repercusiones para la industria financiera de Uruguay fueron tratadas por Cristián Francos y Jean-Jacques Bragard Cooper en el siguiente artículo publicado en el diario El Observador.

Aisha Bembry, managing partner of LBKM's Washington office, was featured in Law.com's "How I Made It" series.

The Lafarge case illustrates the extent companies with operations in high-risk jurisdictions must be aware of increasing ATA-related risk, including the risk of civil litigation.

En una demanda por confiscación de fondos presentada ante una corte del Distrito Sur de Nueva York, los fiscales estadounidenses explicaron porqué el movimiento de esos dólares en su entrada y paso por el país norteamericano sería ilegal.

According to U.S. authorities, the U.S.-based activities of “blue dollar peso exchangers” are illegal, and those exchangers that maintain U.S. bank accounts are subject to asset forfeiture and criminal prosecution. The recent U.S. forfeiture case brought by U.S. authorities in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Partners Capital Investment (“PCI”) illustrates intense interest by U.S. authorities in the “blue dollar peso exchange,” and additional U.S. actions should be expected. 

OFAC, banking regulators and criminal enforcement authorities agree: there are big cases to be made in the crypto space. The latest example is OFAC’s October 2022 sanctions enforcement action against crypto-trading platform Bittrex, Inc.

Solomon Shinerock joins LBKM from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau. Before that, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York.

A senior prosecutor who played a key role in New York’s investigations into former President Donald Trump has moved into private practice.

Solomon Shinerock, who left the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Sept. 30, joined litigation boutique Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss on Tuesday as a partner.

N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James has a solid case against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, but it could take years for the case to get to trial, former prosecutors say.

Who's Who Legal has recognized four Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss lawyers as leading asset recovery practitioners in its 2022 guide. 

Chambers Litigation Support 2022, a guide to leading litigation professionals, has ranked Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss in its Global-Wide Asset Tracing & Recovery category. 

The United States complied with a federal court order and released a former Afghan militiaman from detention in Guantánamo Bay. Last year, Tara J. Plochocki, one of Mr. Haroon’s lawyers, described her client as “desperate to get home” to make sure his daughter gets an education. Ms. Plochocki credited State Department efforts “over the past two months” for arranging the transfer and said the decision in this case “shows that no one, not even the U.S. government, and not even in war, is above the law.”

As a Manhattan prosecutor, attorney John Moscow handled complicated white-collar criminal investigations. He's been following the public court filings in the AG's probe, and believes the lack of Trump documents is remarkable — and intentional.

The United States Supreme Court concluded in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. that federal district courts cannot order discovery for use in a private foreign arbitration via 18 U.S.C. § 1782—a statute that permits litigants to seek discovery in federal court for “use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.”  The unanimous decision narrows a useful discovery tool by prohibiting parties in or contemplating private, foreign arbitration from obtaining discovery through federal courts for use in that arbitration.

Chambers and Partners has again ranked Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss as a leading law firm in the area of insurance.  

Mackenna White, a lawyer who counsels people as to the risks of publishing potentially contested accusations of sexual misconduct, said she worried that the online mockery of Ms. Heard would make some less likely to come forward.

“The absolute destruction of Amber Heard is going to have an impact,” Ms. White said. “If you’re someone who’s worried about what could happen if you speak out, this could have the same chilling effect that we’ve been trying to reverse all these years.”

Cristián Francos has again been recognized as a global leader in the field of investigations by Who’s Who Legal in its Investigations: 2022 guide.

The mayor and McCray were so closely involved that they interviewed Jaffe’s replacement, Nilda Hofmann, months before Jaffe even realized she was being pushed out, Jaffe’s lawyer John Moscow said.

“Why the mayor is interviewing people, I don’t know. Why the mayor’s wife is interviewing three star chiefs is totally beyond me,” Moscow said.

“Statements made in a civil deposition are admissible in a criminal proceeding against the person who made the statement. That’s why people can invoke their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination at civil proceedings as well as criminal,” said Adam Kaufmann, a partner at the law firm of Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss who previously served as chief of the Manhattan DA’s investigative division.

Arthur Middlemiss and Cristián Francos secured the return of all funds seized by the U.S. Department of Justice from U.S. accounts maintained by two broker-dealers based in Uruguay and New Zealand, respectively, both of which operated in Argentina. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Donald Trump seems doomed, but a little-known New York law is buying time for prosecutors to build a better case against him and convince the hesitant new DA to act—or wait until he’s replaced.

Prosecutors must "go and verify each statement of fact in the return," said John Moscow, who also prosecuted complex economic crimes during his 30 years at the Manhattan DA's office.

"You don't say the return is false until you can prove that its constituent parts, taken together, are false," said Moscow, who is now senior counsel with Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss. "And that takes time."

Waleed Nassar, a lawyer who worked on Egypt’s asset recovery efforts, said foreign banks regularly built personal relationships with wealthy customers in Egypt, who could then move money out of the country in a way that might have otherwise raised red flags. “You and I can’t go to a bank right now and get away with some of the most basic things that are atypical protocol-wise, but these guys can,” he said. “But for [the banks’] conduct, a lot of the money would have never have been able to be transferred outside of Egypt in the first place.”

“This is bad news for Trump,” said John Moscow. “He can’t say, ‘I had top-level accountants doing this work.”’

Adam Kaufmann, speaking to Fox5's Teresa Priolo, said, "It's a little bit like blood in the water, I would say. There has to be something hard and objective that says: 'This is a problem.' That gives an accountancy -- or perhaps a law firm, in certain situations -- the signal they need to take some kind of adverse action."

When I first began working on behalf of Guantanamo detainees in 2002, I would never have believed that twenty years after the first detainees arrived on January 11, 2002, there would still be 39 men at the prison, 28 of whom have never been charged with anything. Nearly 800 men have processed through the prison over the last 20 years, some there for a few years, many more for decades.

On December 9, 2021, the Biden administration published the first-ever United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. This Strategy sets forth a “whole-of-government” approach to combating corruption in the United States and around the world. Individuals and entities should expect an increase in sanctions and scrutiny of activities that present high corruption-related risk. As such, companies and individuals should immediately review current business activities to ensure that they understand their exposure to corruption-related risk and have in place commensurate controls to deter and detect potential problems. A proactive approach to corruption risk now will provide material future benefits if the expected increase in regulatory and law enforcement scrutiny results in a corruption-related inquiry.

In recent weeks, LBKM’s Middle East practice group expanded its reach to help launch a large-scale, multi-day event in Qatar to kick off the World Cup 2022. As part of these efforts, LBKM’s Sports and Entertainment group led negotiations with various talent agencies and third parties, managing myriad legal and logistical issues to bring together such public figures as Trevor Noah of The Daily Show; Jalen Rose and David Jacoby of ESPN; and NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady. The event served to promote cross-cultural understanding and demonstrate the ways in which sports and entertainment can be used to bridge cultural divides and effect social change.

A federal judge has found that a former Afghan militant has been held unlawfully at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, the first time in 10 years that a detainee has won such a case against the U.S. government, his lawyers said.

A federal judge has ruled that the United States has no legal basis for holding an Afghan man at Guantánamo Bay.

A US federal court has ruled that a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre has been unlawfully kept there, several days after he was cleared to be transferred out of the military prison.

The US court granted the petition for a writ of habeas corpus for Asadullah Haroon Gul, who has been detained without charge by the US since 2007. The decision marks the first time in a decade a Guantanamo detainee's imprisonment has been ruled unlawful.

The founder and minority shareholder of Tocqueville Management Corp. sued his successor and six of the successor's relatives in Delaware's Chancery Court on Tuesday, saying he was "utterly betrayed" by the man he allegedly groomed to take over the wealth management firm.

Adam Kaufmann joined Dan Abrams on NewsNation Now to discuss New York's ongoing investigation into the Trump Organization.

The U.S. government’s surveillance capabilities and long-standing policies have sparked concern and reaction from the European Union (“EU”), and now, in response to a European court ruling, European partners are reaching out to their U.S. counterparts asking to amend existing contracts to strengthen or install protections concerning European data.  How U.S. entities respond to such requests can determine whether their commercial relationships continue uninterrupted and potentially give them a leg up against the competition.

Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC is pleased to announce that John Moscow has been named to the 2021 New York Super Lawyers list. Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in each state are selected to receive this honor. In addition, A. Mackenna White has been named to the 2021 New York Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected to receive this honor.

Bilal Abdul Kareem, an American journalist based in opposition-held northwestern Syria, is petitioning the US Supreme Court to review his case accusing the government of placing him on a "kill list", and alleging that he was consequently targeted five times by US strikes in 2016.

The petition is the latest development in a years-long legal battle between the United States government and Abdul Kareem, and calls on the Supreme Court to decide whether a lower court erred in its dismissal of his case.

"What our case is really about is: can the United States kill a US citizen without due process, on the basis that its desire to execute its own citizens is a state secret?" Tara Plochocki, legal counsel for Abdul Kareem, told Middle East Eye.

"The fact that they are having sealed proceedings is consistent with an ongoing grand jury investigation and suggests the district attorney may be considering further charges or defendants," said Adam Kaufmann, a former investigations division chief at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office who is currently a partner with the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss.