19 Mar 2024
Saturday 6 June 2020 - 16:19
Story Code : 377154

Iran sanctions case being dropped by US despite conviction

Bloomberg | : In a rare move, federal prosecutors are seeking to withdraw a criminal case against an Iranian banker who was convicted of violating U.S. sanctions.

Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, 40, was found guilty in March of helping to funnel $115 million through the U.S. financial system to Iranian entities from a construction project in Venezuela. Prosecutors said Sadr set up a network of companies and bank accounts to mask the involvement of his father, the head of Iranian industrial conglomerate Stratus Group and one of the countrys most successful businessmen.

In a filing on Friday in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors asked a judge for permission to drop the case, citing the likelihood of continued litigation over suppression of evidence. Given the resources that would be required to address all the evidentiary issues, continuing to pursue the case would not be in the interest of justice, they said.

Sadr, who attended Cornell University, lived in the U.S. and kept an apartment in the Georgetown section of Washington. He was convicted of five counts related to sanctions violations, including bank fraud and money laundering, and acquitted of one count of conspiracy.

He testified in his own defense at trial, saying he set up the companies in an effort to diversify his fathers business empire outside of Iran.
Extraordinary Motion


Sadrs lawyer, Reid Weingarten, said he and his client were arent sure why the government brought the extraordinary motion to drop the case. Weingarten had already asked U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan to dismiss the case, citing what he said was exculpatory evidence revealed by the government after the verdict, including undisclosed interviews with witnesses.

Wehopeits that they finally saw the case as we did -- that it never should have been brought and it was compromised from the very beginning, Weingarten said. The whole concept of violating sanctions is youre acting contrary to the interests of theUnited States. The overwhelming evidence is that this was a fellow who was utterly patriotic, was thrilled to live in theUnited States, wanted to live in theUnited Statesfor the rest of his life and was incredibly hostile to the Iranian government.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan, which brought the case, declined to comment.

The prosecutors move is highly unusual, said Anthony Sabino, a law professor at the Peter J. Tobin School of Business at St. Johns University, noting that anything that could be considered exonerating needs to be turned over by prosecutors by law. This being disclosed after the conviction is highly unusual.

Sabino said the case draws parallels with those of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who was found guilty in 2008 of seven corruption-related felonies before his verdict was set aside because of misconduct by prosecutors, and former National SecurityAdvisorMichael Flynn, who is currently trying to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to federal agents about conversations with a Russian ambassador.

This is going to be egg on the face for the prosecutors office, Sabino said. I just have trouble with it. I allow for all human error. But I just find it difficult to fathom how this could have happened in this particular instance. Its been known to happen, but it does not add gloss to the resume of the Southern District in this particular case.
(Updates with professors comment in ninth paragraph.)


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