The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
Very interesting case. (Here's the AP and the Daily Business Review) All of the criminal defense lawyers in town were scanning the paper this morning to see who represented defendant Raoul Weil, a top executive at UBS. Weil isn't here in the US, but he hired New York lawyer Aaron R. Marcu from Covington & Burling. Here's the indictment.
I still haven't figured out formatting with this new Blackberry Bold, so I will post more info and the indictment when I get to the office later today. In the meantime, anything going on that you all wanna discuss?
Jeffrey Neiman (pictured), who is one of the leading tax prosecutors in the country, and was part of the UBS team, is starting his own firm and will be sharing space with Fred Hadaad in Broward.
Ryan Stumphauzer, who is the Deputy Chief of Economic Crimes and the Health Care Fraud Coordinator, and Ryan O'Quinn, who was Senior Counsel at the SEC and is now a securities prosecutor, are forming a partnership and will be practicing in Miami.
Three good guys. I'm sure this is going to be tough on the economic crimes section.
Levi and O'Quinn were running the Mutual Benefits case (the expected 8 month trial before Judge Jordan), so it will be interesting to see what happens there.
What a strange day -- courts are closed, but schools are open. It only took 10 minutes to get downtown on US1... Apparently, the DBR didn't take the day off. All kinds of fun stuff today, including Vanessa Blum's story on billing rates and her awesome video report:
UM law school held a panel talking about the current crisis in the Middle East. Interesting perspectives from Judge Altman (not on behalf of the federal bench, he was careful to add!), Lenny Roth, a lawyer and current Vice President at UBS, and MickeyKerbel, an entrepreneur and veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. The panel provided historical context to the current crisis and touched on other topics, including the Israeli legal system. Worth a watch, link is here.
***UPDATE***
Judge Altman provided Commentary for Real World Politics on the Gaza Hospital Bombing here.
Thanks to a tipster, I see that Judge William Zloch took senior status on January 31, 2017. That means that our District now has 3 open seats. Judge Zloch was the Chief Judge of our District from 2000-2007. Here's his wiki entry:
William J. "Bill" Zloch (born 1944 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is a SeniorUnited States District Judge, as well as a former American footballquarterback and wide receiver for the University of Notre Dame.
Following the departure of Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte in 1965, Notre Damefootball coach Ara Parseghian was faced with a wide-open competition for the quarterback position. He opted to move senior Bill Zloch from wide receiver to quarterback for the 1965 season.[1]
Directing a team that was heavily run-oriented, Zloch finished the
season completing 36 of 88 passes for 558 yards and three touchdowns.[2] The team finished 7-2-1 and ranked 8th nationally.
After graduation, Zloch spent three years in the United States Navy, achieving the rank of lieutenant, then returned to Notre Dame Law School, completing a Juris Doctor in 1974. He returned to Fort Lauderdale to begin a private law practice.[3]
On October 9, 1985, President Ronald Reagan nominated Zloch to a newly created seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He was confirmed by the United States Senate
on November 1, 1985, and received his commission on November 4, 1985.
On July 1, 2000, he began a seven-year term as Chief Judge of the
district, ending on June 30, 2007. He was succeeded as Chief Judge by
Judge Federico A. Moreno.[4] He assumed senior status on January 31, 2017.
Judge Zloch on August 21, 2009 sentenced UBSwhistleblowerBradley Birkenfeld
to 40 months in prison with 3 years probation and a $30,000 fine, a
term that was harsher than the prosecutors wanted. "Assistant U.S.
attorney Jeffrey A. Neiman recommended that Birkenfeld get 30 months in
prison for his conviction on one count of conspiracy to defraud the
government -- down from the 60-month maximum sentence he is exposed to
-- because of his extensive cooperation," the Miami Herald reported.[5][6]
I didn’t mention this when D.O.M. called and said he needed to focus on work for a while, but I have no idea what’s going on in the SDFla. Judge Jordan dropped by my JV-FPD class last week to explain what goes on behind the curtain at the Eleventh Circuit—which went so well I could have sold tickets. But other than that I’ve pretty much been buried by work without contact with the outside world. Skimming over the Blog, it seems like all I missed was that Justice O’Connor came to town to cut the ribbon on the new courthouse cafeteria. Or something. Anyway, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing going on. The DBR’s web site reports that the deal between UBS and the U.S. may be unraveling. Whatever. That impasse was in the news the last time I was pinch-hitting in this space. Look, people, the whole reason why this district merits its own blog is that weird and bizarre stuff happens here. If you’re all just going to behave normally, then what’s the point?
Judge Gold set an evidentiary hearing for July 13th to sort out whether treaties or Swiss law prevent UBS from divulging account holder names to the IRS, reports the DBR. (The link is for subscribers only.) According to the article by John Pacenti, Gold ordered the Attorney General to explain by June 30th whether the IRS position is correct. Anyone making assertions about what Swiss law says needs to be in court for the hearing.
So, will UBS settle? Trial is "looming" Monday. Judge Gold will have one last status conference this Friday.
BLT has a number of interesting posts, including this one on 11th Circuit nominee Beverly Martin. Looks like she will be confirmed...
Effective closing or a lemon in the Representative Jefferson case? We'll find out shortly. Here's the BLT coverage:
Lemons have an odd way of sprouting in the legal lexicon. Lemon laws protect car buyers. The Lemon test helps govern the separation of church and state. And today, lawyers for ex-Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) introduced what might be called "the lemon defense." In closing arguments this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Washington defense attorney Robert Trout told the jury that the FBI had targeted Jefferson in a sting operation, in which the bureau tried to catch him paying bribe money to the vice president of Nigeria. But when the money turned up in Jefferson’s freezer instead of the vice president’s house, Trout said, investigators realized they had "a lemon of a case." "They decided they wanted to make lemonade out of lemons," the Trout Cacheris name partner continued on. “And before you can do that, you’ve got to squeeze a lot of lemons. And so they squeezed some lemons." The "lemons" squeezed by the FBI, Trout said, were the witnesses who would eventually testify that they bribed Jefferson to use his congressional connections to set up business deals in Africa.
Tom Withers covers the memos here. A snippet from his summary:
The Guidance Memo then directs that the discovery review should cover the following: 1) the investigative agency’s files, 2) Confidential Informant/Witness/Source files, 3) Evidence and Information Gathered During the Investigation, 4) Documents or Evidence Gathered by Civil Attorneys and/or Regulatory Agencies in Parallel Civil Investigations, 5) Substantive Case Related Communications, 6) Potential Giglio Information Relating to Law Enforcement Witnesses, 7) Potential Giglio Information Relating to Non-Law Enforcement Witnesses and Fed.R.Evid. 806 Declarants, 8) Information Obtained in Witness Interviews, a) Witness Statement Variations and the Duty to Disclose, b) Trial Preparation Meetings With Witnesses and c) Agent Notes. The Guidance Memo then directs that although prosecutors may delegate the process of review to others, they “should not delegate the disclosure determination itself.”
3. Lots of coverage on the shootings from Las Vegas. Just terrible stuff. Here's the video that is making the internet rounds:
Today at every federal courthouse security will be a little tighter. People will get a second look, maybe a third. There is no correlation between what happened in Las Vegas yesterday and federal court anywhere else. People get angry at the grocery store, at the post office, and at work. But it's like when someone with a shoe bomb tries to blow up a plane, well, you know the rest.We (those who go to court) all have to deal with what happened yesterday. It will happen again, we all know that. But because we cannot stop a sick, angry litigant from sneaking in with a gun, a shotgun, we have to at least pretend we can. The gunman was dressed in black. Watch "no black" be the next addition to the dress code. We can only sigh and understand that this is the world in which we live.It angers me that today I have to mourn the death of a Court Security Officer, a retired cop now one of the guys in blue jackets that waive familiar lawyers through, and say "how you doin' today counsel?". A guy who just "went to work" right after the new year, and left the courthouse dead. Five seconds before he was probably talking to a prosecutor, defense lawyer, or fellow security officer about his New Year's vacation. or the weekend's football games.Pisses me off.
4. Random thought of the day: Why does Blogger say that internet is misspelled?
I could write about the potential penalties for DonteStallworth and ask for your opinion about who should get more time -- a DUI defendant who kills someone or a first-time fraudster in federal court.
Hmmmm... Perhaps I should engage the commenter in the post below who asks what I would do if I were U.S. Attorney.
But alas, I need to head out for a couple hours now. Hopefully I'll come back and have some great posting idea. Post suggestions in the comments please.
The blog reported back in August the sad news that Judge Gold was formally retiring this month and that he would close his chambers and take inactive status. John Pacenti of the Daily Business Review covered the story last week and reports that Judge Gold is happy about moving on to the next phase of his life:
But for now, he is focused on his baby granddaughter in New York. His wife, Susan F. Gold, retired last year as an associate professor of pediatrics and education at the University of Miami, and they want to focus on family and travel.
"It's about at this phase in my life, reprioritizing while I'm healthy," he told the Daily Business Review. "We wanted to explore really other interests in our lives together and independently."
Gold was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 after serving as a state circuit judge, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig and a Miami-Dade County attorney. He took senior status in 2011.
"This is a tough week because there is a sense of sweet sorrow in retrospect, but also an excitement about living a mindful phase of my life," the 70-year-old judge said. "At this stage, it's time to ask your next question: Who are you now, and what is it you want to do with the time you have left?"
***
U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said Gold was one of the hardest-working judges in the district."He always has been one of our more scholarly judges," Moreno said. "We are going to miss him because he was such a hard worker, but I'm delighted he wants to spend more time with his family. He certainly deserves a break."
Judge Gold was at Judge Bloom's investiture last week and looked great.
He handled some of the biggest cases in this district -- Exxon, UBS, Shaygan... But more importantly than the brilliant way he handled those cases was that he was a great person and made everyone feel like they were getting a fair shake. He'll be missed on the bench.