Something unusual is going on in the Federal criminal case against accused Viktor Bout money launderer, Richard Chichakli. The defendant's oral motion to represent himself, which has been universally reported by courthouse observers, is not supported by an order or filing. Though there have been several media statements that his case is going to trial in November, no trial date has been posted. The withdrawal of the two appointed private defense attorneys as counsel of record has not been the subject of any published order, and there are no new sealed pleadings in the file this week.
So I ask the question; is Richard Chichakli going to trial or not ? Is all this simply a smokescreen for his cooperation, and will we see additional indictments ? As Viktor Bout's primary financial officer, he has a lot of secrets to tell.
Chichakli's website www.chichakli.com has "gone dark". This may be due to non-payment of some fee, or more interesting reasons. The allegations regarding Chichakli's links to Bout (e.g. that he was Bout's "primary finanacial officer") are for the moment merely allegations and have been denied by Chichakli in great detail on his now inaccessibile website. "If you have done no wrong you have nothing to hide" has been Chichakli's defensive strategy, and as pointed out he has made available a large amount of material that greatly clarifies the circumstances of the case. The U.S. government, by contrast, seems intent on hushing up such information, ostensiby for "national security" reasons. As usual, invoking "national security" seems to coincide with the need to cover up official wrongdoing
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