WHAT IF YOU ARE A COMPLIANCE OFFICER CHARGED WITH MONEY LAUNDERING, BUT YOU ARE INNOCENT; WILL THE PROSECUTOR VIOLATE BRADY vs. MARYLAND AND HIDE EVIDENCE OF YOUR INNOCENCE?

Two completely different, yet related, items in this week's news have served to remind me that, for compliance officers responsible for AML/CFT, they stand exposed to a criminal justice system that just might not be playing by the rules in 2024.

The first article dealt with the trial judge dismissing Manslaughter charges against a famous Hollywood actor, for violations of BRADY vs. MARYLAND, that verged in Prosecutorial Misconduct, a topic often alleged, but rarely proven. Prosecutors intentionally withheld what may have been exculpatory information, meaning evidence that might tend to exonerate the defendant, and an angry judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.

The second article involved a report of rampant and systemic Brady violations that pervaded the State Attorney's Office in my own Miami-Dade County. It seems that a "Take no Prisoners" attitude among prosecutors there had led to huge and repeated violations of Brady.

Many of us in the AML space are still upset that the US Attorney in Manhattan was forced to dismiss serious money laundering charges against the Iranian ALI SADR HASHEMI NEJAD, infamous as the owner of Malta's defunct and money laundering PILATUS BANK, when certain material collected by the FBI was not timely given to defense counsel. Sadr notoriously had four different St. Kitts CBI passports, and used five different names, which of course reminds me of the recent RICO litigation, and my concerns about an infinite number of SKN passports in circulation among transnational criminals.

Therefore, you as a compliance officer had better keep excellent records, in duplicate, lest you somehow be wrongly charged with Willful Blindness, or some other money laundering crime, when you are innocent, because an ambitious prosecutor might just conceal evidence that clears you. All these Brady violations cases frankly scare the *** out of me. Keep good records, including of telephone conversations and internal matters that you might not otherwise reduce to writing, lest you regret it later.