Checking In On The Firtash Enforcement Action
In April 2014, the DOJ announced the unsealing of a criminal indictment charging six individuals “with participating in an alleged international racketeering conspiracy involving bribes of state and central government officials in India to allow the mining of titanium minerals.” (See here for the prior post).
According to the indictment, Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman who was arrested in March 2014 in Austria (see here for the DOJ’s prior release), was the leader of a criminal enterprise, through his group of companies Group DF, that included: Andras Knopp (a Hungarian businessman); Suren Gevorgyan (of Ukraine); Gajendra Lal (an Indian national and permanent resident of the U.S.); Periyasamy Sunderalingam (of Sri Lanka); K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao (a Member of the Parliament in India who was an official of the state government of Andra Pradesh and a close advisor to the now-deceased chief minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy).
Court Grants DOJ’s Request To Sever FCPA Counts In Bankman-Fried Matter
In December 2022, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Samuel Bankman-Fried arising from an “alleged wide-ranging scheme by [him] to misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, the international cryptocurrency exchange [he] founded …, and mislead investors and lenders to FTX and to Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency hedge fund [he] also founded.”
Specifically, Bankman-Friend was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations.
As highlighted in this prior post, in March 2023 the DOJ filed a superseding indictment adding a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act conspiracy charge to the criminal charges Bankman-Fried is facing.
Bankman-Fried Seeks Dismissal Of FCPA Charge
In December 2022, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Samuel Bankman-Fried arising from an “alleged wide-ranging scheme by [him] to misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, the international cryptocurrency exchange [he] founded …, and mislead investors and lenders to FTX and to Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency hedge fund [he] also founded.”
Specifically, Bankman-Friend was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations.
As highlighted in this prior post, in March 2023 the DOJ filed a superseding indictment adding a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act conspiracy charge to the criminal charges Bankman-Fried is facing.
U.S. Court Denies Norway’s Extradition Request Of Former Yara International Executive
On March 17, 2021, the DOJ filed under seal a complaint pursuant 18 USC 3184 captioned “In the Matter of The Extradition of Kendrick Taylor Wallace.” In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the DOJ stated that Norway “has submitted a formal request through diplomatic channels for the extradition of Kendrick Taylor Wallace, a U.S. citizen.”
Wallace previously served as the Chief Legal Officer, and was also a member of the corporate management team, of Yara International ASA (Yara) (one of the world’s largest producers of mineral fertilizers) and the complaint references that Wallace was convicted of criminal offenses in Norway for bribery schemes involving “a Libyan government official and an Indian government official in connection with negotiations to establish joint venture agreements concerning fertilizer production with state-controlled companies in Libya and India.”
Recently, the court denied the extradition request and dismissed the DOJ’s complaint. (See 2021 WL 2401906).
Friday Roundup
Firtash extradition, scrutiny alerts and updates, spot-on observation, and refreshing words. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Firtash Extradition
In April 2014, the DOJ announced the unsealing of a criminal indictment charging six individuals “with participating in an alleged international racketeering conspiracy involving bribes of state and central government officials in India to allow the mining of titanium minerals.” (See here for the prior post).
Among those charged was Dmitry Firtash, a high-profile Ukrainian businessman.