The U.S. Treasury must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to an attorney it accused of covering up a fraud that led to the failure of a Miami bank, a U.S. appellate court ruled Tuesday.
The U.S. Justice Department dropped its controversial money-laundering case Wednesday against a prominent Miami lawyer who had vetted legal fees for a second attorney defending a Colombian drug lord.
A Miami lawyer at odds with the U.S. Treasury Department for alleged bank fraud and his law firm are balking at a request to produce documents tied to the investigation of financier Robert Allen Stanford.
The U.S. Treasury Department is challenging a federal judge's recommendation to drop civil charges against a former attorney accused of helping a Miami bank hide over $20 million in losses.
In February, the U.S Attorney's Office in Miami charged Benedict Kuehne of helping to disguise narcotics proceeds that were a portion of more than $5 million in fees paid by a drug trafficker to his defense lawyer.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the attorney made false statements and suppressed evidence concerning his work for defunct Hamilton Bank.