Prior posts (here, here, and here) discussed a motion to suppress and a motion to dismiss brought by various defendants in the Carson matter. Given the recent guilty pleas of Stuart Carson and Hong Carson (see here), as a practical matter the motions only affected the remaining defendants – Paul Cosgrove and David Edmonds.
In the motion to suppress, defendants moved to suppress statements which they made to attorneys from Steptoe & Johnson during the course of Steptoe’s internal investigation on behalf of Control Components, Inc. and its parent IMI plc. The theory of the motion was that the Steptoe attorneys were part of the Government’s investigation and therefore state actors.
Judge Selna rejected the state actor theory – see here for his tentative order. Judge Selna stated as follows. “As a matter of fact finding, there is no basis to conclude on the basis of events that transpired prior to the interviews or in the aftermath that the Steptoe lawyers were acting as agents of the Government.” The tentative order states as follows. “Steptoe contacted the Department of Justice. […] There is no evidence that the Government had any input in the determination of which employees to interview or what they should be asked. Although [Mark] Mendelsohn [former DOJ FCPA Unit Chief] was advised of the first day of interviews via e-mail, he did not provide guidance or input for the next day’s interviews, and put off discussing the ‘specifics’ of the interviews until the following week.”
Judge Selna further stated as follows. “The facts here do not establish more than a unilateral determination on the part of CCI and its parent to cooperate with the Government. Surely, it was in CCI’s interest and a legitimate activity to investigate potential criminal conduct in its business operations. The Government had no involvement with the Defendants’ interviews, and it cannot be said that Steptoe’s action were so intertwined with the Government that those interviews may be ‘fairly treated’ as the conduct of the Government. […] The record is clear that CCI through its parent IMI had made a decision to conduct an internal investigation before Steptoe contacted the Government.”
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Judge Selna also issued a tentative ruling (here) denying defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment “on a series on individual grounds upon which they claim to have been denied due process and on the basis of the cumulative effect of these individual deficiencies.”
Judge Selna noted that “a number of claims [were] predicated on the theory that Steptoe & Johnson … was the agent of the Government and joint investigator” and that such issues were properly resolved in the above-described tentative order.
As to the Defendants’ assertion that the FCPA and Travel Act lacked clarity, Judge Selna stated that “this is simply a cameo reprise of their earlier attacks on these statutes which the Court addressed at length, and rejected.”
As to the Defendants’ theories regarding denial of access to witnesses, missing documents, and foreign documents, Judge Selna concluded that none of these issues were “attributable to unilateral government action.” As to Brady issues, Judge Selna concluded that “the Government has used its reasonable efforts to secure materials in the possession of CCI.”
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During Monday’s hearing on the motions, Judge Selna indicated that he will soon be issuing formal denials of the motions. The remaining defendants in the Carson matter – Paul Cosgrove and David Edmonds – are scheduled to stand trial in late June.
