Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Roy Black interviewed on Helio case

Tom Withers, who runs the awesome Federal Criminal Defense Blog out of Savannah, Georgia, has this great interview of Roy Black. Check it out.

Here's the intro question and answer:

Q: Thanks for your time and congratulations on the not guilty verdicts in the Helio Castroneves case. Any indication from the government on whether they will retry the conspiracy count against Castroneves and his sister?

Mr. Black: No, but in our view, the government can't retry Helio on conspiracy because of collateral estoppel. If the jury found no tax deficiency on the substantive evasion counts, then there was no unlawful plan. An agreement to comply with the tax code is not a crime. Or, if the jury found no willfulness on the evasion counts, then there can be no willfulness on the conspiracy. Either way we win. At a minimum we get interlocutory review in 11th Circuit before we start any litigation on this issue, we will meet with the government and see what their views are. There are civil remedies the government should be satisfied with.

Here's a snippet about a funny part of the trial with Bob Bennett:

Q: How was the experience of trying this case with Bob Bennett out of Washington, D.C.? Anything you gained from observing his courtroom demeanor/preparation?

Mr. Black: I have known and worked with Bob before and he is a wonderful lawyer. Not just that but the has a great sense of humor which really connects with the jury. One of the funnier parts of the trial dealt with Hugo Boss suits. The government claimed Helio should have reported the income from getting free suits from them. Our defense was that Hugo Boss was a sponsor of the racing team and Helio had to wear the suits. The claim was pretty petty. The total retail value of the suits was around $12,000. The summary government expert even admitted the amount was not material to the return. I cross-examined the CEO of Hugo Boss about how wonderful their suits were and that they wanted to show them off by having a slim good looking guy like Helio wear them. Then Bob got up, stuck his stomach out (which I can attest goes pretty far) and asked how would the suits look on his body. The jury got a good laugh out of that.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ridin' the Bull, feeling it...feeling it...isn't it beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Whoops...

"Doin' the Bull Dance. Feelin' the flow. Workin' it. Workin' it. ...."

Rumpole said...

ha ha ha. Nothing funny about obesity. It comes with a whole host of health problems.

Commodore said...

Get a load of this shi....poop.

Poll question: "Most likely Prosecutor from SD Fla. to apply to be a "corporate monitor"?

":Former AG Ashcroft Forms Nationwide Law Firm with Ex-Prosecutors

Posted 7 hours, 42 minutes ago
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is teaming up with former federal prosecutors to open a nationwide law firm that will affiliate with his consulting business.

Ashcroft’s law firm is expected to open offices in several cities in the next several weeks, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. The former Missouri governor and attorney general opened his lobbying and consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group, in 2005, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Its work includes corporate monitoring under contracts that are part of deals companies make to avoid prosecution.

Former Texas U.S. attorneys Johnny Sutton and John Ratcliffe are forming the law firm Ashcroft Sutton & Ratcliffe in Texas, the Tex Parte Blog reports. Meanwhile, former U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway is forming Ashcroft Hanaway in Missouri and will be stationed in its St. Louis office, according to Tex Parte and the Post-Dispatch.

Clients of The Ashcroft Group will work with the new law firms when necessary, Hanaway told Tex Parte."

Real Anonymous said...

WTF???

David, you need to allow posting again without logging in.

Rumpole, will you be applying to the new Ashcroft law firm? Will that firm soon overtake the Cocharan law group???