Free Republic

Hillel "Helly" Nahmad, the art dealer and playboy whom federal prosecutors allege was involved with an illegal gambling and money laundering ring tied to the Russian Mafia, has retained criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman who insists on his client's innocence as reported by Vivian Yee for The New York Times: "Mr. Brafman, who is representing Mr. Nahmad with another lawyer, Paul Shechtman, said in a statement after the hearing, 'We do not believe that Mr. Nahmad has knowingly violated the law.' He also said, 'We anticipate that he will be fully exonerated.'" Nahmad "is keeping himself out of jail by...

A Turkish businessman whose criminal case became a controversy at the highest levels of U.S. and Turkish government looks like he'll never make it to trial. Even a co-defendant's lawyer last week labeled Reza Zarrab the "stealth" defendant after he and his lawyers skipped a pretrial conference a few weeks before the scheduled date of his trial on charges that he conspired to process hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of financial transactions for Iranian businesses or Iran's government through U.S. banks. Authorities say those transactions are banned by U.S. and international sanctions. Prosecutors and the judge made no mention...