In the News Archive

Weisselberg may now be questioning whether continued loyalty will be rewarded, said John Moscow, a former senior white-collar prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Though still at the Trump Organization, Weisselberg was removed as CFO following the indictment, and he no longer serves as treasurer and secretary for many of the company’s subsidiaries.

“That’s a big change in his life, and if other people at the company are being told not to talk to him because they might be called to testify, that’s a change too,” said Moscow. “If I’m representing someone in that office, I would have to advise my client that someone like him may flip and may be wearing a wire.”

Who's Who Legal recognized four Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss lawyers as leading asset recovery practitioners for 2021. 

A lawsuit that sought information about the drugs Indiana plans to use in lethal injections
and that motivated the Legislature to use a late-night session to keep the veil of secrecy
intact has come to a close, with the state paying more than $800,000 in legal fees and
disclosing that its supply of lethal injection drugs has long been expired.

“This case had many flaws,” said Angerame’s lawyer Anthony Capozzolo. “The clients had their reputations tarnished in a way that simply was not fair or just.

“We are thankful for this decision, and the clients are eager to move on with their lives.”

In what defense attorneys characterized as a rare outcome for a government corruption indictment, a Manhattan judge dismissed charges that the New York Attorney General’s office brought against a former World Trade Center electric operations manager and two subcontractors.

[Judge] Wiley dismissed the full indictment based on testimony before a grand jury, which Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss partner Adam Kaufmann said is a not a common outcome for a bribery indictment filed by the AG. “Indictments don’t get tossed on grand jury minutes to begin with,” Kaufmann said. He added: “This was one of the most deeply flawed cases I have ever seen.”

Jack Gordon of LBKM, alongside Human Rights First and Reprieve US, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the petitioner in Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman al-Hela v. Biden in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The case's central question is whether the Constitution’s Due Process Clause extends to individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. al Hela has been held at Guantanamo without charge or trial since 2004. 

"The most initial impact on Trump himself will be financial," Anthony Capozzolo, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, told Insider. "One of the biggest collateral effects of a company being indicted is its banking relationships and other business relationships because, immediately, all of those companies have obligations, especially banks that are highly regulated. They are obligated to not do business with companies breaking the law."

Former President Donald Trump's company and its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg were indicted on 15 criminal charges Thursday for allegedly evading about $900,000 in taxes with the help of the Trump Organization and its payroll corporation. Yamiche Alcindor reports with Adam Kaufmann, former prosecutor and chief of the investigative division in the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Adam Kaufmann appeared on ABC News Prime to discuss the Trump Organization indictment and what might be next in the prosecution.

Adam Kaufmann was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on one of the assistant attorneys general working with Manhattan prosecutors on the probe into the former president.

Adam S. Kaufmann, who served as chief of the office's investigative division, said that "it really suggests they've reached a point in their investigation where the district attorney believes there's evidence of a crime. You don't empanel a special grand jury unless you think you have a viable case."

Adam Kaufmann, who served 18 years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word to discuss why witnesses are granted immunity when testifying before a grand jury in New York and what to expect of the grand jury in the criminal probe of Donald Trump.

John Moscow was quoted in Bloomberg on the recent announcement by New York Attorney General Letitia James that her civil probe of asset valuations by Trump and his real estate company now had a criminal component, and was being coordinated with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

Gul “is a prisoner of war — a war that has been over for many years,” attorney Tara Plochocki argued Monday in court for his legal team, comprising people from human rights group Reprieve and the Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss law firm. “If the rule of law means anything, [he] must be released.”

John Moscow, who headed the DA office’s complex crimes unit under Vance’s predecessor, said Trump’s lawyers will take aim at every aspect of a prosecution, asking even whether unauthorized persons attended grand jury sessions.

Trump lawyers may invoke the five-year statute of limitations on conduct that occurred before 2016, saying some acts can’t be prosecuted, Moscow said. The DA could respond that Trump’s absence from New York during his presidency extended the period under scrutiny to 2012 -- a back-and-forth that will chew up more courtroom time.

John Moscow, a former top assistant to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who competed with Giuliani for big cases and headlines in the 1980s, said the latter’s former positions more likely raised the bar for the prosecutors who sought the warrant and the judge who signed it.

“This is a search warrant for the home of the former mayor of New York City, a former high-ranking Justice Department official, and they’re saying there’s now probable cause to believe there’s evidence of a crime, that evidence exists, and it’s at his home,” said Moscow, who’s now in private practice.

Eric Lewis was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article on the shifting culture of American gymnastics in the wake of abuse allegations and criminal charges.

Back in 2009, Eric Lewis warned In These Times readers that closing Gitmo was not enough — that if the United States wants to reaffirm the rule of law, it must ensure that all of its prisoners are given due process. 

For "any kind of foreign litigation or arbitration ... that involves transactions in U.S. dollars, there's at least a possibility that there's going to be information in the U.S. and that tends to be attractive," said Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC partner A. Katherine Toomey.

Eric Lewis appeared on Corporate Counsel Business Journal's daily podcast, In House Warrior, to discuss extradition, OFAC sanctions, and what to expect from the Biden administration.

“When I made this public records request in 2014, I never imagined that the state would spend the next seven years fighting to prevent these records from being released to the public,” Toomey wrote in an email. “Transparency is a key principle of good governance and the rule of law. The state should not be operating in secret and refusing to disclose vital information to the public.”

The Indiana Supreme Court has ordered the Department of Correction to pay more than $500,000 in legal fees in a fight over one of the state's deepest, darkest secrets.

It all comes back to the convoluted legal fight that started in 2014 with a public records request from A. Katherine Toomey, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents groups opposing the death penalty.

Justices divided 2-2 in a case brought by a Washington, D.C., attorney against the Indiana Department of Correction over Indiana’s “secrecy statute” that prohibits disclosure of the state’s lethal injection drugs and who supplies them.

With Justice Geoffrey Slaughter not participating, the remaining justices split in an order issued Thursday. By rule, the lack of a majority affirms the rulings of Marion Circuit Judge Sheryl Lynch, ordering DOC to disclose the records, awarding $538,000 in attorney fees to Washington attorney Katherine Toomey and granting other relief.

Eric Lewis, a Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC partner, told Law360 that the Civil Division is likely the branch of the DOJ most in need of a morale boost.

"It's overwhelmingly staffed by career people who have really suffered through the last four years, and they've lost a lot of good people too," he said. "These are people who just want to do their job and not impose any ideology."

A Manhattan federal judge said Tuesday it is “exceedingly suspicious” that there are minimal emails discussing the decision to force the NYPD’s first female three-star chief into retirement.

John Moscow was quoted in a Bloomberg article on the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to block a subpoena by the Manhattan District Attorney for Donald Trump's tax returns and other financial records.

“Now they have the evidence that the accounting firm and the corporation have,” said John Moscow, a former chief prosecutor for serious economic crimes at the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “At this point, Trump’s position has to be that he didn’t do anything wrong, because if he did, they’d find it.”

A lawyer for Mohamed Soltan, a US citizen who has filed a lawsuit alleging torture in Egyptian custody, said that plain-clothes officers raided the homes of six family members Sunday, detaining two cousins.

"Now the Egyptian regime is arresting his relatives to try to intimidate him into silence. Such tactics have no place in the international community," said Eric Lewis, a lawyer for Soltan.

"Now the Egyptian regime is arresting his relatives to try to intimidate him into silence," said Soltan's lawyer Eric Lewis. "Such tactics have no place in the international community. Egypt cannot seek the benefits of membership in that community while denigrating human rights and behaving with impunity and lawlessness."

Mark Mandel and Hope Comisky have left Troutman Pepper in search of something smaller after last year's merger created a 1,200-lawyer firm.

Adam Kaufmann was quoted in an analytical piece on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s investigation into Trump and his organization. 

LBKM partner Cristián Francos has been appointed as Senior Vice Chair of the IBA’s Business Crime Committee.

Partner Mark Leimkuhler recently spoke with Insurance Business about the new administration's approach to climate change and the implications for the insurance industry.

Partner Mark Leimkuhler recently spoke with Law360 about the incoming Biden administration's potential effect on property and liability insurers, predicting that the new regime's expected focus on climate change, civil rights enforcement and other areas could lead to an uptick in claims across a wide range of policies.

Cristián Francos been recognized as a Global Leader in Who’s Who Legal: Investigations 2021.  Who’s Who Legal is one of the world’s leading directories of legal practitioners.

Law360's Aebra Coe interviewed leaders at three law firms, including LBKM's Eric Lewis, on the changing ways that associates can demonstrate their value and engage with those in power in a pandemic-era work environment.

Manuel Varela was interviewed by Iberian Lawyer on the events surrounding the assault on the Capitol and potential legal consequences for Trump.

Eric Lewis was quoted in Law360 on President-elect Joe Biden's selection of Merrick Garland as the next attorney general.

A British judge rejected the US' request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying that Assange would be at greater risk of suicide in the American prison system. Eric Lewis told the British court that Assange, if extradited, would face a "best-case scenario" of 20 years in prison. 

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported on a ruling by Spain's Constitutional Court holding that the imprisonment of Nervis Villalobos, a former Venezuelan official, was unconstitutional. Partner Manuel Varela represented Mr. Villalobos in the appeal.

Adam Kaufmann appeared on WNYC's "Trump, Inc." podcast to discuss what the Manhattan DA's investigation could mean for Trump.

The International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators is comprised of academics and litigation professionals committed to vigorously pursuing their clients’ interest while aspiring to the highest ethical standards in criminal and civil actions in cases of economic crime. Fellowship is extended only by invitation, after careful research, to experienced individuals who have litigated cases related to economic crimes. 

A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer argued Monday that the United States can kill its own citizens without judicial review when litigation would reveal state secrets.

"What the government seeks to do in this case represents a radical expansion of the concept of a 'state secret'," explained Tara Plochocki, a partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC, representing Abdul Kareem. "The privilege has never been invoked to permit the government to bypass the Constitution in favour of summary execution, and we hope that the Court will not permit the government to do so here."

Kareem’s attorney, Tara Jordan Plochocki, argued the government was radically expanding sovereignty, domestically and abroad, allowed under state-secrets privilege. 

“Whether that’s in a parking lot in the United States or abroad in Syria, the government has claimed — for the first time ever in this case — that it has unfettered and unreviewable discretion to kill US citizens at will,” Plochocki said.