User Rating: 5 / 5
Reza Zarrab, whose arrest on Iran sanctions evasion charges, when he arrived in Florida with his family, for a vacation at Walt Disney World, is seeking to have his indictment dismissed. His case, which generated a large amount of public attention, when his attorneys offered a lavish house arrest package to the Court, so that he would no remain in pretrial confinement, had had a substantial amount of media attention.
The issue presented by the indictment: Whether a foreign national, using solely transfers between foreign banks, and foreign entities, is liable, under US Iran sanctions, solely because the US Dollars involved were ultimately cleared through American banks ?
Zarrab has assembled a "dream team" of attorneys, from some of America's best law firms, as well as the US office of the UK firm Clifford Chance, and Viet Dinh, the former Associate Attorney General under the Bush Administration. They have, jointly, filed a profusely cited 55-page memorandum of law, in support of the motion, asking that the Indictment be dismissed, due to it being fatally flawed.
The defendant's arguments, simplified, are:
(1) The IEPPA does not apply.
(2) There is no extraterritoriality.
(3) The processing of dollars, for foreign banks, is irrelevant.
(4) The Indictment fails, with respect to each count, as the allegations are insufficient.
(5) The Indictment fails on both statutory and constitutional grounds.
Readers who need to review the complete text of the Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant Reza Zarrab's Motion to Dismiss the Superseding Indictment can access it on PACER, or through a hyperlink on the New York Times website. If you are unable to do so, kindly email me and I will send you a pdf file containing the Memorandum.. Email me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The issue presented by the indictment: Whether a foreign national, using solely transfers between foreign banks, and foreign entities, is liable, under US Iran sanctions, solely because the US Dollars involved were ultimately cleared through American banks ?
Zarrab has assembled a "dream team" of attorneys, from some of America's best law firms, as well as the US office of the UK firm Clifford Chance, and Viet Dinh, the former Associate Attorney General under the Bush Administration. They have, jointly, filed a profusely cited 55-page memorandum of law, in support of the motion, asking that the Indictment be dismissed, due to it being fatally flawed.
The defendant's arguments, simplified, are:
(1) The IEPPA does not apply.
(2) There is no extraterritoriality.
(3) The processing of dollars, for foreign banks, is irrelevant.
(4) The Indictment fails, with respect to each count, as the allegations are insufficient.
(5) The Indictment fails on both statutory and constitutional grounds.
Readers who need to review the complete text of the Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant Reza Zarrab's Motion to Dismiss the Superseding Indictment can access it on PACER, or through a hyperlink on the New York Times website. If you are unable to do so, kindly email me and I will send you a pdf file containing the Memorandum.. Email me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Unless it is continued, the trial will commence in January, 2017.
