Legal Ethics
Key Money Laundering Charge Dropped Against Miami Defense Lawyer
Posted Dec 23, 2008, 06:46 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal judge in Florida has tossed a key charge in the government’s money laundering case against a prominent Miami defense lawyer.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke of Miami tossed a count that alleged Ben Kuehne conspired to transfer $5.2 million in Colombian drug proceeds to pay legal fees, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Kuehne had been hired to investigate the source of the money and vouched that it was clean.
Cooke ruled Kuehne could not be prosecuted on the charge because of a 1988 exemption in the money laundering statute for lawyers’ legal fees, the Miami Herald reports. The newspaper says Cooke’s ruling “shattered the foundation of the government's criminal case.”
David Markus, who filed an amicus brief supporting Kuehne for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told the Miami Herald that the government’s case “is now in utter shambles.”
The controversial prosecution of Kuehne spurred his lawyer and others to accuse the government of overaggressive tactics. Kuehne had once represented former Vice President Al Gore in the presidential election dispute. Earlier this year he received a lifetime achievement award from the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.