PANAMA'S WAKED MONEY LAUNDERING ORGANIZATION FILES ITS BRIEF OF APPELLANT

Attorneys for the Panamanian national Abdul Waked Fares, the leader of what the US Department of Justice refers to as the Waked Money Laundering Organization, have filed their initial brief, in their appeal of the District Court's adverse ruling, against their challenge to massive OFAC sanctions, entered against the Waked organization's financial empire.

To summarize Waked's argument:

(1) Procedural Due Process requires that there be a meaningful opportunity for one to rebut the evidentiary basis of an SDNT designation.
(2) The OFAC disclosure violated Due Process, as it provided appellant no opportunity to meaningfully rebut the evidence against them.
(3) The lower court decision produces an absurd result.

The appellants had a Summary Judgment entered against them by the District Court. If the DC Circuit reverses, it could mean that future OFAC actions would be required to afford Procedural Due Process, meaning the specific evidentiary basis for each sanction, to nonresident foreign nationals, and entities.

Nidal Waked Hatum, who is facing an October trial in Miami, on money laundering charges, is being held in pretrial confinement.