NAJIB & CO CLING TO STOLEN BILLIONS: JHO LOW TO FIGHT DOJ FOR US$654MIL PARK LANE HOTEL – APPOINTS FAMOUS LAWYER
Another prominent lawyer has taken a role in litigation over luxury properties allegedly bought with laundered money from Malaysia.
Dechert partner Andrew Levander, a white-collar specialist and the firm’s policy committee chairman, is representing a joint venture that bought the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South in Manhattan in November 2013 for $654 million.
In a series of asset forfeiture suits filed in Los Angeles federal court in July, the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to seize interests in the hotel and 15 other properties allegedly bought using roughly $1 billion illegally diverted from Malaysia.
The purchase of the Manhattan hotel by Levander’s client, Symphony CP (Park Lane), is the largest single purchase cited by the Justice Department. No individuals or entities have been charged by the Justice Department in connection with these transactions.
Levander declined to comment. Neither Levander nor Dechert appeared to play a role in the hotel’s purchase. Symphony CP (Park Lane) is a partnership between an investment entity controlled by Low Taek Jho, one of the Malaysians accused of being at the center of the alleged money laundering scheme, and the Witkoff Group, a New York real estate development company, according to the Justice Department’s complaint.
According to the complaint, more than $200 million of the funds for the Park Lane Hotel purchase were routed through a trust account held by DLA Piper. The government claims these funds “were moved in a manner intended to conceal the origin, source and ownership of criminal proceeds.”
Other law firms are mentioned in the complaint as being conduits for money that was allegedly being laundered through other purchases. The government has not accused DLA Piper or any of these firms of wrongdoing, and DLA Piper has stated that it followed proper procedures and did nothing wrong.
Last month, Matthew Schwartz, a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, stepped forward to represent Red Granite Pictures Inc. in a related asset forfeiture case filed by the Justice Department. There, the agency is seeking profits and royalties from “The Wolf of Wall Street” motion picture, which was allegedly funded with at least $64 million in illicit money.
Red Granite, which owns the rights to the 2013 movie, was co-founded by Riza Aziz, the Malaysian prime minister’s stepson, according to the government.
“To Red Granite’s knowledge, none of the funding it received four years ago was in any way illegitimate, and there is nothing in today’s civil lawsuit claiming that Red Granite knew otherwise,” the film company said in a statement. “Red Granite continues to cooperate fully with all inquiries.”
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