RELATED REPORTS
RICHARD KLAPPER
BoNY's lawyer
Bank of New York Lawyers Subpoena Reporter’s Bank Records
(© Copyright US-Russia Press Club, Inc.
All rights reserved)May 18, 2000. New York (MT~Newswire) Last week BoNY lawyers served subpoenae on banks demanding account statements and credit card records of Maria Berdnikova, a reporter who covers the Bank of New York - Russian money laundering scandal for various print and broadcast media, including the MT.
Early March of this year Ms. Berdnikova requested an interview with Richard Klapper of the New York based law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, which is defending BoNY in a lawsuit brought on behalf of the Bank's shareholders. Mr. Klapper has not responded to Ms. Berdnikova’s interview request.
On March 15, MT published Ms. Berdnikova’s article "Witness in the Bank of New York Case Attacked”. (
Click here to view article.) The article described how a young Russian female banker who traveled to New York to testify in the BoNY case was harassed and intimidated upon return to Moscow by BoNY’s alleged Russian co-conspirators. The witness testified that certain BoNY officers and their Russian counterparts engaged in insider trading in Russian securities.
MT has learned that the witness has since been forced to resign by her employer, Raiffeisen bank, after Mr. Klapper served a subpoena on the Austrian bank informing the Raiffeisen that its employee had testified in the BoNY case. “This is an outrage” says Emanuel Zeltser, who acted as the attorney for the witness during her deposition “it is our position that BoNY lawyers intentionally violated a confidentiality order prohibiting lawyers from disclosing to anyone confidential information obtained during the proceedings in retaliation for my client’s testimony.”
Sullivan & Cromwell had been in hot water before for breach of confidentiality order. In October of 1995, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Leaky Credibility: Big Law Firm's Gaffe Over Sealed Records Raises Troubling Issues; Sullivan & Cromwell Blew Bankers Trust Secrecy In Highly Sensitive Case.”(
The article described how a S & C partner, Mr. Holley, leaked to Business Week a court document filed under seal in a major lawsuit against Bankers Trust New York Corp. “The case has not only laid bare missteps by Mr. Holley but also focused a spotlight on lax practices on the part of 119-year-old Sullivan & Cromwell that could alarm its other clients” wrote the Journal noting that “among other transgressions, according to the testimony, the firm didn't file the sealed papers in a secure place.” The Journal also noted that “the case has also raised questions about the confidentiality of other Sullivan & Cromwell client matters.” Mr. Klapper was acting as an attorney for Bankers Trust in that case.
The shareholders’ lawsuit alleges that some of the senior officers of the Bank of New York conspired with corrupt officials of Inkombank to engage in fraudulent dealings, capital flight and money laundering. Inkombank collapsed in October of 1998. It has been widely reported that Inkombank was closely tied to Russian organized crime groups. Recently, the Russian Procurator General’s office opened a criminal investigation into Inkombank’s dealings in the US. Russian authorities requested the US Justice Department to help obtain information concerning certain money transfers from the Bank of New York to another Russian mob-linked bank Nizhegorodets. In February of last year, BoNY’s former vice president, Lucy Edwards, pleaded guilty to a variety of Federal charges including money laundering. Another former BoNY associate, Svetlana Kudryavtseva, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and lying to FBI agents. BoNY itself has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
On March 2, US District Judge Denny Chin, presiding over the shareholders’ lawsuit, ordered the chairman of the Bank of New York Company, Thomas A. Renyi, to surrender his tax returns, telephone records, and credit card statements. Klapper, appearing on BoNY’s behalf, argued at a hearing that the plaintiffs were invading Mr. Renyi's privacy. He also claimed that release of the records would help plaintiffs' witnesses to "construct perjured testimony and forged documents." But Judge Chin rejected Mr. Klapper's argument and said curtly: "The documents are to be produced within two weeks from today."
Shortly after Judge Chin ordered Mr. Renyi to submit his records, BoNY lawyers issued at least a dozen subpoenae on multiple witnesses and potential witnesses demanding that they likewise produce their tax returns and personal records similar to those Mr. Renyi was asked to produce. Judge Chin noted during the April 6, 2001 hearing however that BoNY lawyers are trying “just to follow what was being asked of Mr. Renyi, to some extent, and I agree [the witnesses] are in somewhat different scenarios” and also stated BoNY is not entitled “to every personal item, every piece of information” about non party witnesses and their personal affairs.
A source close to the litigation expressed concern that the private information obtained by BoNY's subpoena is used by BoNY's Russian co-conspirators to harass, intimidate and injure witnesses.
The BoNY subpoena regarding Ms. Berdnikova demands that financial institutions turn over to BoNY’s lawyers “any and all documents including but not limited to account opening documents, signature cards, credit references, account statements, account files, funds transfer records, correspondence, communications, concerning any and all accounts” of Ms. Berdnikova.
“BoNY lawyers clearly are trying to communicate a message to the members of the press” said Maria “if you report on things we’d rather keep under the rug, we will retaliate.” Maria said that she intends to continue her coverage of the BoNY-Russian laundering scandal. “Now it is really beginning to be interesting” she said “the public has the right to know what it is that these fellows are hiding so much.”
Mr. Klapper did not respond to our telephone calls.
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