Businessman wanted 'broken bones' due to lawyer's defamation suit over online review, FBI says
In the course of a money-laundering probe of a Las Vegas businessman, FBI agents say, they happened upon another potential crime.
Emile Bouari told undercover agents he wanted to put attorney Paul Padda in a wheelchair, have his hand cut off, or at the very least see him suffering from “broken bones,” a federal prosecutor says. That was due to the defamation suit Padda had filed against Bouari over an adverse online review of his private law practice, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Bouari’s claimed desire to hurt Padda never actually resulted in any physical harm to the attorney, but was disclosed Friday in court by a federal prosecutor in Bouari’s unrelated money-laundering case, the newspaper says. Assistant U.S. attorney Kimberly Frayn sought and got a magistrate judge to agree that Bouari, whose first name is also given as “Emilie” in the article, should be denied pretrial release.
Padda filed suit nearly a year ago against Bouari and another defendant in Clark County District Court, contending that they made false statements about him on the Ripoff Report. Bouari wanted him harmed to discourage Padda from pursuing the suit, the feds say. They informed Padda, who formerly worked as a federal prosecutor himself, of the claimed statements by Bouari and put him under protection, the Review-Journal reports.
Frayn said Bouari suggested that Padda could be attacked while en route to his vehicle, at his mother’s home or at his law office.
However, an attorney for Bouari discounted the claimed threats and told the magistrate that Bouari isn’t a violent man. Attorney Brian Smith also said his client never acquiesced to an informant’s repeated suggestion that Bouari pay him $1,500 to harm Padda, the newspaper reports.
Bouari has pleaded not guilty in the money-laundering case.
