11th Cir. Oral Argument in Ben Kuehne Money Laundering Case

By Jeralyn, Section Law Related
Posted on Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 11:40:56 AM EST
Tags: Ben Kuehne (all tags)

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Ben Kuehne, as I've written before, is a leading criminal defense lawyer in Miami. The Government charged him with money laundering and related crimes. He moved to dismiss arguing the exception in 18 USC Section 1957 prevents the government from indicting a criminal defense lawyer for taking payment from a client. The district court agreed and dismissed the count. The Government appealed. The trial court's order is here(pdf).

Oral arguments were this morning and David Markus at the SDFla blog has an excellent recap. While one can never predict how an appellate court will rule from oral arguments, it appears the panel was all over the Government and favorable to Ben's position. David thinks the court will uphold the dismissal.

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11th Cir. Oral Argument in Ben Kuehne Money Laundering Case | 2 comments (2 topical)

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Unless the Government can prove ... (none / 0) (#1)
by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 02:07:23 PM EST

... beyond any reasonable doubt that there was an active RICO-style collusion or participation by said defense attorney with defendant in a criminal conspiracy or an ongoing enterprise - which it obviously has not - the Goverment really had no business going there.

There's no evidence that Mr. Keuhne's payment came from illegal funds. This case sounds more like petty retribution against defense counsel on the part of someone in the Miami U.S. Attorney's office.

But then, Ben Keuhne was an easy mark, because the sad fact of the matter is that very few people truly appreciate the work of attorneys, particularly high-profile litigation or defense counsels, until they actually find themselves in serious need of their services.

i like this almost (none / 0) (#2)
by cpinva on Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 04:05:46 PM EST

as much as the state asserting absolute prosecutorial immunity, for any and all illegal acts committed during a case.