Take care when doing business offshore
The subject matter of the blog title is worthy of multiple blog posts in itself–and perhaps will be, in the future. However, for today, I want to link readers to public records of interest.
Christopher Rusch was a California attorney who, among other things, spoke at seminars and advised clients on overseas asset protection strategies. Mr. Rusch was charged by the U.S. government of committing fraud, and, as part of his plea agreement, testified against his former clients, resulting in the conviction of his clients:
His former clients recently filed a motion for a new trial or in the alternative to dismiss. The basis of that motion was essentially that Mr. Rusch, at the time of their trial, had been reborn as “Christian Reeves” a former attorney but still an offshore services adviser operating an offshore services website. They essentially allege that information should have been provided to them by the prosecution for impeachment of his testimony. The motion was not granted for failure of the defendants to satisfy all of the necessary criteria to obtain a new trial. But the order did not dispute the allegations that Christopher Rusch, disbarred attorney, had in fact reinvented himself.
You can read the Court’s order, which contains some of the defendants’ allegations about Rusch/Reeves, here:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-azd-2_11-cr-02385/pdf/USCOURTS-azd-2_11-cr-02385-4.pdf
