Abramoff firm settles; Case against Greenberg Traurig dropped

[tpsbmam]

Source: Marianas Variety (Marianas Islands)

CRIMINAL charges against stateside law firm Greenberg Traurig were dismissed without prejudice on Monday by Superior Court Judge Michael J. Bordallo.

..........

Following the indictment, Tydingco said the AG's office and the attorneys of Greenberg Traurig began negotiations and recently reached a cooperative settlement agreement in which the firm would reimburse the judiciary the entire $324,000 and assist in the case against Sanchez and Abramoff. Tydingco said the court received the check amount on Monday.

"The law firm agreed to fully and truthfully cooperate as well as provide substantial assistance to the Attorney General's Office in its investigation and further prosecution of the case," he said.

"That was our first and foremost aim. We wanted to obtain their cooperation because a lot of the documents for the trial required their assistance and authentication and so forth. Not all of the documentary evidence was necessarily produced over here. There were some here as well as with their law firm."

Read more: http://www.mvariety.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=10002&format=html

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Confirmed by the Wall St. Journal blog:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/04/15/guam-o-rama-prosecutors-drop-charges-against-greenberg-traurig/

Guam-O-Rama! Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Greenberg Traurig

The brass at Greenberg Traurig presumably slept well last night. On Monday, prosecutors in Guam (yes, Guam) dropped a case tied to the firm’s imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The firm agreed to refund $324,000 in lobbying fees to the Guam judiciary in exchange for the dismissal of charges of theft by deception, theft and conspiracy. Here’s the story from the Miami Daily Business Review, courtesy of law.com.

[Robbien]

1. Good

Great, in fact.

Now go get the corrupt bastards.

[JDPriestly]

2. What are you talking about? The lawyers walk away free

and the client takes the rap? This may be a giveaway to the Republican firm Greenberg Traurig. They have an obligation to cooperate. It would not take a settlement to get their cooperation. As for authentication of documentary evidence, you submit Requests for Admissions that the documents are authentic, true and correct, you bring the principles in for depositions and present the documents one by one and if you can't get where you want to go that way, you simply subpoena the attorneys as witnesses and get the documents authenticated on the witness stand at trial. This is ridiculous. And what do you want to bet the attorneys will now bow out based on attorney client privilege? I don't know all the facts, but this does not sound great to me.