| Defending BNP Bank Business
With Genocidal Sudan Regime Cleary Gottlieb
Uses Junior Associate
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 24 – BNP Paribas bank has
been sued for aiding and
abetting genocide in Sudan.
On October 24
BNP's lawyers from Cleary
Gottlieb including junior
associate Katherine Lynch
argued that the bank owed and
owes no duty to the people in
Sudan.
District Judge Alison J.
Nathan of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York peppered
Carmine D Boccuzzi and to a
less degree Ms. Lynch with
questions about their
position, along them and
plaintiffs' lawyers to both go
over time. Her rule to promote
younger lawyers is laudable
but cannot drown out the cries
of those burned alive in
Darfur amid BNP's cynicism in
Switzerland and yes, New York.
As
Inner City Press / Fair
Finance Watch has shown to
regulators, BNP Paribas in the
United States has a disparate
lending record. But violating
sanction to lend to the
Khartoum regime accused of
genocide is something else.
Judge Nathan after 4:30 pm
told the parties she will
endeavor to rule on BNP's
motion to dismiss as quickly
as possible. The case is Kashef
v. BNP, 16-cv-3228
(Nathan).
Previously before
Judge Nathan: Iranian banker
Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad,
charged with money laundering
and violating US sanctions
including through a Venezuelan
infrastructure project, wants
his curfew extended to
midnight and his GPS ankle
bracelet removed.
The requests were
made by Sadr's lawyer Reid
Weingarten of Steptoe &
Johnson after a scripted
"Curcio hearing" on September
9 before U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of
New York Judge Alison J.
Nathan. While adding prior
Steptoe clients Citibank, UBS
and Commerzbank to Steptoe's
script, Nathan found the Sadr
knowingly waived all conflicts
of interest.
Then a
surprise: Assistant US
Attorney Michael K. Krouse
acknowledged that yet to be
turned over are e-mails from
seven custodian other than
Sadr, somehow lost in the
cracks of the case. Judge
Nathan gave Krouse a week to
provide a status update, with
full production to be
completed in two weeks and a
response by Steptoe a week
after that. They will be
seeking to exclude these
e-mails.
On the
bracelet removal request,
Judge Nathan said she saw no
reason to do it. Weingarten
replied that Pre-Trial favors
it, and that he wants to meet
with Sadr until midnight. The
government's position will be
known in a week and more from
Steptoe if the government
opposes either. It's good to
have money, in essence. This
is not how lower income
defendants are often treated
in the SDNY. The case is USA v.
Nejad, 18-cr-00224
(Nathan). More on Patreon here.
O
***
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