Wondering whether Republican legal tools CHRIS CHRISTIE, MARC KASOWIWTZ AND BOBBY BURCHFIELD will be among the next to be indicted?
Notably, one article states BURCHFIELD is TRUMP ORG. "former" ethics lawyer. Wonder why?
Oleaginous archnid apparatchik lobbyist-litigator BOBBY BURCHFIELD was long an advocate for allowing unfettered money in politics. His wife was recently fined $2500 after pleading nolo contendere to consorting and fornicating with a Virginia inmate in BURCHFIELD's Maserati.
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Feds Probing Payments To Marc Kasowitz, Chris Christie, Recently Single Biglaw Partner
Their client may have been feeding them tainted funds.
Marc Kasowitz (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
It’s been a few months since we’ve checked in on Marc Kasowitz. At that time, it was hard to imagine that we’d be remembering him wistfully as Donald Trump’s “successful” Russiagate counsel. There was a cameo in the ongoing Harvey Weinstein controversy, but more or less Kasowitz has gone back to his day job as a bulldog of a NY attorney.
But now federal authorities are digging into Kasowitz’s fees — not for any wrongdoing on his part — but because the feds have some reason to believe he’s been getting paid with laundered money. Kasowitz represents a fugitive Malaysian money man named Jho Low who used to have a little, but now has a lot in the form of $4.5 billion that he allegedly stole from a fund called 1MDB which sounds like a new strain of ecstasy. The government has the sneaking suspicion that Low is paying his legal fees — tens of millions of dollars worth at this point — out of these stolen funds by funneling payments through a Thai businessman named Phengphian Laogumnerd and Fugees co-founder Pras Michel.
Can we stop for a second and seriously consider if there’s ever been a band more weirdly dogged by complex financial misconduct claims than the Fugees? Lauryn went to prison for tax evasion, there’s all that stuff about Wyclef’s charity, and now this. There are MDs at Goldman that raise fewer eyebrows.
Anyway, Kasowitz isn’t alone on Low’s legal team. Former Kool-Aid Man Chris Christie is working a case out in California where folks are trying to seize Low’s assets, and King & Spalding’s Bobby Burchfield is also representing Low in the various investigations into the guy’s conduct. While Kasowitz may have been off our radar for a bit, Burchfield most definitely has, having seen his ex-wife nolo charges of hooking up with an inmate in the back of a Maserati. When it rains, it pours.
Burchfield says he’s not gotten any inquiry from the federal government over these payments at this time, but one suspects that’ll change if the government finds reason to believe the lawyers have been duped into taking laundered money.
It’s an occupational hazard when working with accused criminals on the run from the law. Still, Kasowitz must be a lot happier to be in this boat than joining the bunker mentality in D.C. today.
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From The Hill:
DOJ probing whether Malaysian fugitive used laundered funds to pay Chris Christie, Trump lawyer: report BY MEGAN KELLER -
08/29/18 10:54 AM EDT
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly investigating whether a fugitive Malaysian businessman paid a team of American lawyers, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and an attorney who represents President Trump, from tens of millions of dollars in laundered funds.
The DOJ is pursuing a criminal investigation into Jho Low, who has U.S. assets, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reported that the DOJ filed civil lawsuits in July 2016 and last year to recover assets from Low and others that were allegedly purchased with money embezzled from a Malaysian fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
U.S. court filings have described Low as a central figure in an alleged scheme that embezzled $4.5 billion, according to the Journal, which noted that Malaysian authorities charged Low with money laundering this week in what could constitute one of the largest financial frauds in history.
The Journal added there has been no indication that anyone paid with the funds was aware of their origins.
According to the report, Low may have made payments with embezzled funds to Christie, who briefly headed Trump’s transition team; Trump’s longtime lawyer Marc Kasowitz; a former outside ethics adviser for the Trump Organization, Bobby Burchfield; and a Washington lobbyist with close ties to the Republican Party, Ed Rogers.
“There has been no communication by Governor Christie with any other area of government on Mr. Low’s behalf,” a Christie spokesman told the Journal, adding that “no inquiry made to him by the Department of Justice with regard to any other investigation regarding funding or otherwise.”
A spokesman for Kasowitz’s law firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres, confirmed to the Journal that it represents Low in DOJ-related matters and that it had been paid, “as [is the case] with all of our non-pro-bono clients.”
Burchfield told the newspaper that Low retained his law firm, King & Spalding, to “advise him on the ongoing investigations” and that the firm “performed appropriate due diligence on sources of payment.”
“Further, neither I nor King & Spalding has had contacts with any governmental entity, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Mr. Low, nor has King & Spalding received any inquiries from the Department of Justice regarding this engagement,” Burchfield told the Journal.
Rogers reportedly declined to comment, and representatives for Low did not respond to a request for comment.
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