IRANIAN OWNER OF PILATUS BANK FILES A PLETHORA OF DEFENSE MOTIONS IN HIS US MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

Attorneys for Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, the Iranian chairman/owner of Malta's defunct Pilatus Bank, have filed a flurry of defense motions in his pending money laundering and sanctions evasion case, which is pending in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

These motions include:
(1) Motion to Dismiss sanctions counts and derivative money laundering counts for failure to state an offense.
(2) Motion to suppress search warrant evidence and for a Franks hearing.
(3)  Motion to dismiss all IEPPA counts as an Unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.
(4) Motion to dismiss duplicitous counts.
(5) Motion to dismiss for failure to state a conspiracy in the US and for unconstitutional vagueness.
(6) Motion for return of property pre-trial.
(7) Motion to strike surplusage.
(8) Motion to dismiss for failure to state an offense and lack of specificity or for a Bill of Particulars.

Washing Machine left in front of Pilatus Bank offices in Malta

This zealous action by defense counsel seems curious, when the fact that the defendant, a foreign national from a country regarded as a hostile threat to the United States, is out on bond, and when his trial is regularly being rescheduled, this time until October 21, 2019, one might think that he was either cooperating with the authorities, or in plea negotiations prior to change of plea. Remember, he used approximately the equivalent of ten million dollars, in Euros and Swiss Francs, in Iranian funds that he diverted from a Venezuelan housing project. He moved Iranian money into Malta, using Pilatus Bank as his vehicle. His history does not lend itself to bond.  


Is he or is he not cooperating ? And if so, why is his counsel so actively defending the case ?