Federally indicted lawyer accused of telling clients to pay him in cash calls case 'a DOJ vendetta'
Accused of telling clients to pay him in cash and wire transfers routed to his American Express account, a New York lawyer is calling the federal indictment against him for allegedly failing to report and pay taxes on $3 million in income “a DOJ vendetta.”
The Department of Justice, says attorney Stanley L. Cohen, targeted him because he is a political activist who represents clients such as a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, reports Reuters.
The 63-year-old Cohen is charged in federal court in Manhattan with failing to file income tax returns and wire fraud. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York provides additional details.
Cohen’s client Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, is scheduled to go to trial next month in federal court in Manhattan on charges of conspiring to kill Americans in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Cohen also represented now-disbarred attorney Lynne Stewart, who was sentenced to 10 years for providing material support to terrorists after passing messages from her client, an imprisoned sheikh, to his followers in Egypt.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com (June 2012): “Lawyer Who Represented Terrorism Clients Calls His Tax Indictment a ‘Witch Hunt’”
ABAJournal.com (Aug. 2013): “Dying disbarred lawyer won’t be released from prison now, but could get out later”
