Government Does a 180 in
Prosecution of Prominent Attorney

By John Pacenti
Daily Business Review
New York Lawyer
August 8S, 2008

MIAMI - In a surprising turnabout, federal prosecutors who indicted prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne on money laundering charges now say they plan to offer no trial evidence directly linking him to drug profits.

Instead, the government will offer testimony to show that millions of dollars used to pay Colombian druglord Fabio Ochoa's high-powered defense team was tainted by the family's legendary cocaine smuggling network.

"It's a remarkable document," former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey, who is not involved in the case, said Thursday. "It's an astonishing acknowledgement of what appears to be a roadmap to a negligence case rather than intentional criminality."

Kuehne faces seven indictments charging him with money laundering concealment and conspiracy for vetting the money paid to celebrity Miami attorney Roy Black to defend Ochoa. Prosecutors offered a shrunken view of the case in court filings July 31 as they presented a bill of particulars to support the indictment, which had been winnowed once before.

Testimony will show Ochoa family cattle and horse concerns used for $5.1 million in defense fees were tainted by Ochoa's $300 million drug operation, wrote the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Feitel in Washington. He did not return a call for comment by deadline.

Kuehne's defense attorneys, John W. Nields of the Howrey law firm in Washington, and Jane Moscowitz of Moscowitz & Moscowitz in Miami, had no comment on the new documents.

Kuehne, who was paid nearly $200,000 by Black, concluded the money was clear of any criminal taint.

Prosecutors say they plan to offer evidence from a New York money laundering sting operation and the black market peso exchange system, which converts U.S. drug profits to Colombian pesos. This section of the government's court filing comes with no mention of Kuehne.

"With respect to the remaining wire transactions, the government represents that it does not currently intend to introduce evidence directly tracing narcotic sales to specific assets that resulted in wire transfers to defendant Kuehne's attorney trust account," the bill of particulars said.

Exhibits released with the bill of particulars list alleged false statements Kuehne made to Black in four opinion letters on the state of the Ochoa money. Kuehne, in the opinion letters, maintained the Ochoa cattle and livestock were separate from drug activities of Ochoa and his brothers. Kuehne concluded Ochoa properties, a cattle ranch, a horse farm and a chain of restaurants known as Las Margaritas were independent from drug trafficking and existed well before Ochoa and his brothers became involved in the Medellin drug cartel."The history of the Ochoa family in Colombia is a storied one in which the Ochoas have earned a position of respect and prominence and a reputation for honesty and integrity," Kuehne wrote.

He said Ochoa's father was well-regarded for raising Paso Fino horses, achieving sales of $500,000 to $1 million and stud fees up to $10,000 each.

"Witness testimony will also establish that the Ochoa family used phony sales of Paso Fino horses to launder drug proceeds to the United States," according to the bill of particulars.

Kuehne was charged in May in a third superseding indictment along with Colombian attorney Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa and Colombian accountant Gloria Florez Velez.

Government filings list 16 alleged co-conspirators, including money broker Hernando Saravia and Ochoa relatives.

Prosecutors say they intend to show how pesos were turned into dollars by a money broker using $1.8 million cash from undercover drug stings.

Saravia appears to have started working for the government in 2002 after he was caught trying to move $400,000 in drug profits from New York to Colombia, according to court documents. Kuehne depicted Saravia in the letters as a well-established Bogota flower exporter and jeweler and said Velez used Saravia to convert Ochoa's pesos to dollars for Black.

"Ms. Florez Velez personally confirmed that Colombia bank officials have refused to authorize wire transfers to the United States on behalf of or for the benefit of Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, notwithstanding compelling proof of the legitimacy of the funds," Kuehne wrote.

Kuehne, a respected lawyer in South Florida, represented Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential recount and handled other high-profile civil rights and election cases.

The case against him has been criticized by criminal defense attorneys as the latest government effort to scare lawyers away from defending such clients as Ochoa. An obstruction of justice charge against Kuehne was dismissed after protests from the criminal defense bar. His attorneys point to a 1988 exception in the federal anti-money laundering statutes that exempts attorneys from criminal liability for accepting defense fees.

Coffey said the government must do more than just show Kuehne may have been negligent in the difficult task of sorting out the good, the bad and the ugly in the Ochoa family fortune. To gain a conviction, Coffey said prosecutors must prove Kuehne intended to convert illegal drug profits on the black market peso exchange.

The government has no audiotapes that would bolster its case against Kuehne, according to a source close to the investigation.

"Unless they got tapes or some kind of red-hot smoking gun, this case may not get past a dismissal motion," said Coffey, a name partner with Coffey Burlington in Miami.

He said a good example of giving a negligent but not criminal opinion was former Secretary of State Colin Powell's testimony to the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"You can be wrong giving an opinion, even tragically wrong," Coffey said. The attorney said it is ironic that the clearest traceable illegal funds are the government's own money from the drug stings. He said it's not illegal to be fooled by your own government.

"The government is going to be talking out of both sides of its mouth because it was doing everything it could to create this scam," Coffey said.

Money-Laundering Prosecution Worries Lawyers
Rare Case Prompts Criticism That Government Is Attempting to Intimidate Counsel

By Scott Michels
ABC News
July 22, 2008

A rare federal money-laundering prosecution of a prominent Florida attorney has prompted concerns that other defense lawyers may no longer represent high-profile criminals for fear of being prosecuted themselves.

Benedict Kuehne, one of Al Gore's lawyers during the 2000 Florida recount, has been accused of money laundering for approving $5.2 million in legal fees paid by Fabio Ochoa, formerly one of the leaders of the Medellin drug cartel, to Ochoa's well-known defense attorney, Roy Black. Much of the money was allegedly derived from drug sales, prosecutors contend.

The case in federal court in Miami is being closely watched in legal circles around the country both because of its unusual circumstances -- it is believed to be the first federal prosecution of an attorney for vetting the source of legal fees -- and because of Kuehne's sterling reputation in the Miami legal community.

"It's an extreme case that represents the government's attempt to expand money laundering laws as broadly as possible and at the same time to send a message to lawyers," said Kendall Coffey, the former U.S. Attorney in Miami, who has worked with Kuehne.

"There are those in the Justice Department who believe that serious drug dealers and other serious criminals should not have access to top-flight lawyers," he said.

That belief was echoed by some other former prosecutors around the country. "The government's position is that people who are notorious criminals shouldn't be able to acquire a high-profile lawyer," said Buddy Parker, a former federal prosecutor in Atlanta who specialized in money laundering cases.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman declined to comment on the case, as did Kuehne and his attorneys.

Kuehne was not the initial target of the investigation. The case stems from the prosecution of Ochoa, who was convicted in 2003 of smuggling more than 30 tons of cocaine into the United States.

Black, Ochoa's attorney, hired Kuehne in 2001 to vet $5.2 million in legal fees to make sure they were not drug proceeds. Black, who was never charged and is not under investigation, is a high-profile criminal defense lawyer whose clients have included William Kennedy Smith and Rush Limbaugh.

According to an indictment unsealed earlier this year, Kuehne was paid about $200,000 for his work, at least some of it allegedly from the money he was vetting. In a series of memos, he told Black the money, initially wired to a trust account controlled by Kuehne, was from legitimate sources, and not drug money. He then gave the money to Black and his associates.

According to the indictment, however, nearly $1.8 million of that money came from fake bank accounts set up by undercover law enforcement agents as part of investigations into money brokers that help drug cartels launder money.

The indictment claims that Kuehne, Gloria Flores Velez, Ochoa's personal accountant, and Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa, one of Fabio Ochoa's Colombian attorneys, knew that the money was tainted drug money and created fake documents to claim that it came from legitimate sources.

In a statement at the time the indictment was unsealed, Black and several other lawyers who were assisting in Ochoa's defense, said, "During the course of Ben's work on this matter, the lawyers involved in the Ochoa defense saw nothing to suggest that Ben was doing anything other than his typically careful, factual research and legal analysis."

Lawyers for Flores and Saldarriaga, who have both moved from Colombia to Miami while the case is pending, said their clients were not guilty. "She acted in good faith throughout this whole thing and never dreamed she would be in this position," said Henry Bell, Flores' lawyer.

Saldarriaga's lawyer, Joaquin Mendez, said Saldarriaga played a minor role in the case and spent most of his time on Ochoa's defense, not on vetting the money. "We're scratching our heads wondering why they decided to bring this prosecution," he said.

Kuehne attributed $2.3 million of the legal fees to a man named Hernando Saravia, according to the indictment. Of that, $1.8 million were drug proceeds, the indictment says, and were sent to Kuehne from undercover investigators.

In letters to Black, Kuehne said the $1.8 million was from Saravia, whom he described as a reputable businessman in the flower and gem businesses. According to the indictment, Kuehne attached what prosecutors say was a forged letter from Saravia verifying the source of the money.

Saravia is allegedly a money broker who, as first reported by the Miami Herald, is expected to be a cooperating witness for the government in Kuehne's case. He was indicted in January 2007 on a federal money laundering charge in New York. He is in jail in Colombia awaiting extradition to the United States, according to Bell and Mendez.

"They need a link from the Colombians to say that the money was drug derived and Kuehne knew or turned a blind eye," said Myles Malman, a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted Panamanian dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega, and a friend of Kuehne's. "Saravia is the most likely person to provide that link."

Those who know Kuehne or know his reputation were shocked by the indictment.

"You have to understand that Ben Kuehne is probably the best known, most upright, outstanding attorney that you can have," said Tom Cash, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Agency's Miami office. "He has a tremendous reputation. He's always been known as being a tower of integrity."

In recently filed motions to dismiss the charges, Kuehne's attorneys argued that Congress exempted criminal defense services from money laundering prosecutions and that the government has gone too far by essentially criminalizing negligence.

"If the lawyer knows he is subject to criminal prosecution and imprisonment when his judgment on whether to take a fee is flawed, even a client who has untainted funds may not be able to find a willing lawyer to take his case," they argue. The government must file its response by next week.

Other attorneys expressed the same concerns. "What makes it such a paralyzing case for other defense lawyers is if they can prosecute someone with the impeccable reputation of Ben Kuehne in these circumstances, then anyone could be arrested if they are doing work for alleged criminals where the government believes you wound up getting dirty money," Coffey said.

Other observers believe the government may have more evidence against Kuehne than they are letting on. "I have to believe the Department of Justice thinks there's something more here," said Robert Litt, the former head of the Department of Justice's criminal division, who was not familiar with the facts of the case.

"Was this a corrupt deal or a guy who got something wrong? If the latter, it's an outrage. If it's the former, it looks very different."

Attorney Fights Back Against Money-Laundering
 Charge in Drug Kingpin's Case

By John Pacenti
Daily Business Review
New York Lawyer
March 25, 2008

MIAMI - High-profile Miami attorney Ben Kuehne has thrown two haymakers at the government's case charging he laundered drug proceeds while vetting $5.3 million in defense fees for convicted trafficker Fabio Ochoa Vasquez. In two pleadings, Kuehne's legal team accuses the government of manufacturing the complaint by ignoring a 1988 exception that Congress carved out to protect defense attorneys.

Another motion argues for dismissal of an obstruction of justice charge, claiming it is not sufficiently backed up with specific actions by Kuehne.

A motion for a bill of particulars filed March 10 puts it on the table: The government is trying to chill the defense bar and violate the Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice.

"If lawyers are at risk of criminal prosecution and jail sentences whenever it later turns out that their fees were tainted, lawyers will be deterred from representing even defendants who have clean funds," the motion said.

Steve Chaykin, a former federal prosecutor who co-chairs Akerman Senterfitt's white-collar crime division in Miami, agreed: "This is clearly designed to prevent those under investigation from obtaining competent counsel of their choice."

The case against Kuehne, accountant Gloria Flores Velez and Colombian lawyer Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa is scheduled for a status conference today in front of U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. The government has yet to respond to Kuehne's motions but may indicate its stand in court.

Kuehne represented Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election challenge and other high-profile clients, many on a pro bono basis. He also served as a federal prosecutor and an assistant attorney general in Florida.

He was paid about $200,000 for his work on the Ochoa case, checking for illicit funds in the money bound for lead defense attorney Roy Black of Black Srebnick Kornspan & Stumpf.

Kuehne concluded the money was clean, but prosecutors said they watched some of the funds pass through monitored transactions tied to launderers.

Kuehne's legal team is led by Miami attorney Jane Moscowitz of Moscowitz and Moscowitz and Washington attorney John Nields of the Howrey law firm.

The team has decided to make no comments outside court on the case.

The defense motion states anti-money laundering laws do not fit the case because Kuehne was not trying to conceal or hide anything from the court.

His team wants Cooke to order prosecutors to state how money transfers from Kuehne's trust account to Black were done "to conceal or disguise the source of funds, or indeed anything else."

The defense claims prosecutors have willfully ignored a 1984 law amended in 1988 to protect attorneys trying to sort bad money from good. "It is not that Congress thought it proper for a lawyer knowingly to receive proceeds of crime as payment for fees," the pleading said. "The problem is that there is often uncertainty whether fees are clean."

The government is "openly hostile" to the exemption, Moscowitz and Nields wrote. In what appears to be a preview of the trial defense, the pleading notes the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found that the government must establish laundered "funds are more concealed after the transaction is completed than before."

Kuehne, along with his co-defendants, undertook the task of vetting money attributed to the Ochoa family's horse and cattle holdings. He reported back to Black, who defended Ochoa before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore.

"Kuehne's role in vetting the fees was known to the court handling the Ochoa case and to the prosecutors who were responsible for it," the pleading reads. "It is simply not apparent in what manner this movement of funds concealed anything."

Chaykin sees trouble ahead for prosecutors.

"They are going to have a very difficult time," he said. "He had been engaged to do this and had a real target on his back, a real bull's eye, because of the controversial nature of his client as well as the defense attorney."

Miami criminal defense attorney Milton Hirsch adds: "What we have here are two highly regarded attorneys in Roy and Ben who went the extra mile to make sure that however bad defendants may have been, the money was good, and as a reward for their extra efforts Ben is indicted."

He notes the government is seeking to forfeit $5 million from the defendants even though they were paid considerably less and the money went to Black.

"I'm very troubled by this prosecution," Hirsch said. "This prosecution boldly goes where none has gone before." The indictment unsealed Feb. 6 alleges Kuehne and his co-defendants "knew that the funds used by Ochoa consisted of or were at least commingled with proceeds of drug trafficking." Initially, the co-defendants were charged with four counts of money laundering, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of obstruction of justice.

Two counts of money laundering have been dismissed against Saldarriaga and Flores because the statute of limitations ran out on the indictment issued under seal in 2005. Kuehne failed to have those two charges thrown out because he was in active negotiations with the government before a superseding indictment was unsealed last month, sources say.

The key prosecution witness may be Hernando Saravia, who was under indictment for money laundering in New York.

Kuehne provided an opinion letter that provided correspondence from Saravia stating he owned flower and jewelry businesses and sold a Miami home to help pay Ochoa's legal fees, prosecutors said.

Investigators said the letter was part of a sting operation. Saravia never drafted the letter, and the businesses were undercover fronts for U.S. law enforcement. About $1 million in drug money from five federal undercover operations was tracked through Kuehne's trust account and onto Black, according to the indictment.

The lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sellers in Washington, could not be reached for comment Monday. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami had declared a conflict in the case, sending it to Washington.

Chaykin said funneling dirty money through Saravia during the vetting process is "treacherously close to invading the defense camp." The government is going to have to show Kuehne knew the money was dirty to win convictions.

The former prosecutor said forcing prosecutors to provide a bill of particulars would ensure that the government doesn't try to pursue other avenues to prove its case. He said it's not surprising the obstruction of justice charge is vague because grand jury indictments allow prosecutors room to maneuver. The count alleges only that the defendants tried to influence, obstruct and impede the grand jury investigation. It does not state whether this was by influencing witnesses, influencing a grand juror or through false testimony, according to the dismissal motion.

"It fails completely to inform the defendants of the nature and cause of the accusation against them as expressly required by the Sixth Amendment," the motion reads.

                          Laundering Charges Trouble Attorneys

Julie Kay
National Law Journal
March 17, 2008


FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — The indictment of a Miami criminal defense attorney has triggered concern among defense attorneys and renewed calls for federal officials to establish guidelines for avoiding money laundering charges when accepting legal fees.

A further fallout from the federal indictment of defense
Miami lawyer Ben Kuehne   attorney Ben Kuehne is that many lawyers are now
reluctant to "vet," or perform due diligence checks on, potential criminal liabilities connected with other attorneys' legal fees.

"This is a matter of grave concern for lawyers all over the country," said Michael Monico, a former Chicago federal prosecutor and president of the American Board of Miami lawyer Neal Sonnett             Criminal Lawyers, a select, invitation-only group of top defense lawyers.

"It will absolutely have a chilling effect on legal representation," said Monico of Chicago's Monico, Pavitch & Spevack. "There has to be some trust between the defense bar and prosecutors."

In a statement issued to The National Law Journal, the U.S. Department of Justice, which is handling the Kuehne case, said it is "longstanding Department of Justice policy that the Department approaches with great care the prosecution of an attorney for money laundering based on financial transactions involving funds allegedly derived from a criminal activity."

The DOJ statement added: "However, when there is clear evidence of wrongdoing, the Department will honor its commitment to the pursuit of justice. Attorneys are not immune from prosecution of money laundering simply on the basis they represent criminal defendants."

Kuehne isn't the only lawyer the Justice Department has ever charged with money laundering for allegedly taking tainted funds for fees. There have been several other cases in the past decade, most in Miami, stemming from the acceptance of drug proceeds.

A Miami lawyer is currently serving 17 years in prison for money laundering charges in connection with his fee. In a 1999 case, a Michigan defense lawyer was charged with two counts of money laundering for accepting $100,000 and then arranging for delivery of the money "with the intent of promoting a client's continued marijuana trafficking," according to the appellate ruling.

A jarred bar

Still, the indictment of Kuehne, a former president of the Dade County Bar Association, former president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors, has jarred the criminal defense bar.

"This makes us wonder, 'Are we doing something wrong?' " said Brian Tannebaum, president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It causes people to step back and say, 'whoa.' How far does a criminal defense lawyer have to go to check out his legal fees? I think the DOJ has been trying to send us a message for a long time and won't stop until there are rules in place."

Kuehne's indictment stemmed from his 2002 role in vetting legal fees for Miami attorney Roy Black. Black was representing Fabio Ochoa, an alleged kingpin of the Medellin cocaine cartel. Kuehne traveled to Colombia to investigate the source of the fees before giving Black an OK to take $5.2 million in supposedly clean legal fees. Black paid Kuehne $197,000 for his vetting work.

Kuehne, 53, was indicted on Feb. 7 along with Gloria Florez Velez, personal accountant for Fabio Ochoa and Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa, a Colombian attorney for Ochoa.

According to the indictment, the three defendants allegedly "commingled and transferred drug proceeds through the 'Black Market Peso Exchange,' " a "sophisticated money laundering scheme used by South American drug cartels to launder their U.S. dollar drug proceeds located in the United States."

It turned out that several of the wire transfers on which Kuehne signed off originated from U.S. undercover agents. According to federal sources, the feds were not targeting Kuehne but were simply tracking Ochoa's drug proceeds when they led to Kuehne.

Kuehne pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyer, Jane Moscowitz of Miami, has vigorously denied them.

The indictment also calls for forfeiture of the $5.2 million in attorney fees paid to Black. However, the three defendants would have to pay that money back to the government, not Black, who has not been indicted.

The Florida Association of Defense Lawyers quickly issued a statement in support of Kuehne. Fifty attorneys — including former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey — showed up at Kuehne's initial appearance and arraignment in a show of solidarity.

According to sources, internal debate has raged within the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers over what stance to take. Some are pushing for a strong statement, while others want the statement toned down or put off until the facts of the case are better known.

But in the face of Kuehne's indictment, many criminal defense lawyers are renewing their call for the Justice Department to establish guidelines as to how far attorneys have to go in vetting legal fees.

"We begged the DOJ for years to set out guidelines for lawyers to follow and they turned us down," said Neal R. Sonnett of Miami's Neal R. Sonnett P.A. "I had one DOJ official tell me years ago that they would prefer these drug kingpins never get competent lawyers. The official line is they're not in the business of vetting legal fees."

The DOJ has plenty of other guidelines, including guidelines on forfeiture of attorney fees, subpoenas to journalists and attorney-client privilege, Sonnett said.

Dennis Kainen of Weisberg and Kainen, another Miami criminal defense attorney, agrees. "The problem is the DOJ won't give you guidance," he said. "They give guidance on certain fees, but not this. The government needs to promulgate some rules and guidance. After all, we work within a system of laws."

The DOJ said it has guidelines on lawyers avoiding money laundering charges set forth in the U.S. Attorney's Manual, Section 9-105.6.

However, Sonnett said those guidelines do not answer the broader question of what kind of due diligence an attorney must conduct to avoid criminal liability or even forfeiture.

But a federal prosecutor who spoke on condition of anonymity cautioned lawyers to wait until the trial before calling for widespread changes. They might change their minds once they see the evidence against Kuehne, he said.

"People see an indictment and don't know what the evidence is yet and they jump to a conclusion," said the prosecutor. "They think, 'There but for the grace of God goes I.' But they should wait until after the trial stage to make a decision."

Another prosecutor noted how rare the prosecution of a lawyer for money laundering is. Only a handful of lawyers have been charged with the crime, most in Miami, while 26,000 drug traffickers were convicted last year.

But local criminal defense attorneys are wasting no time in leaping to Kuehne's defense.

If Kuehne is guilty of anything, it's of being naïve, said Jose Quinon, a solo Miami criminal defense attorney. Quinon represented Ochoa before Black, but withdrew from the case after failing to satisfy himself that the legal fees were entirely clean.

Quinon said Ochoa was ostensibly going to pay his legal fees through the sale of cattle. For Kuehne to travel to Colombia, where he does not speak the language, and oversee the sale of cattle was pure folly, Quinon said.

"Ben does not have street smarts," Quinon said. "What the hell does Ben know about cows? He's a city slicker. Ben doesn't do drug cases; he has no idea what the hell he is doing. They gave him documents and they were phony documents. He didn't know they were phony documents."

Fear of drug defendants

Many of Miami's so-called white powder bar stopped representing drug dealers years ago for fear of being tagged with money laundering charges or losing the entire fee due to forfeiture measures.

Richard Sharpstein of Miami's Jorden Burt dropped drug clients in the early 1990s and now concentrates his practice on prominent athletes such as Randy Moss, the New England Patriot charged with domestic violence, police officers and white-collar matters.

"Most criminal defense attorneys consider this an outrageous prosecution," Sharpstein said.

"If you take this a few steps beyond, lawyers that advise banks or financial institutions could be in the line of fire next. If you extend the logic, it's kind of frightening. I had several cases many years ago where I went to the U.S. attorney's office and spelled out the source of my fee to the prosecutor looking for their blessing. I've gone to judges for approval."

Kainen is one lawyer who is thinking of withdrawing from a case following Kuehne's indictment. Although the case does not involve drugs, Kainen said he is concerned about how he can ensure the funds are clean. He declined to name the case, or what it involved.

"We're doing due diligence about the fee and talking to other lawyers," he said. "No one has definitive answers as to what you can do. Some people are in legitimate businesses and arrested for doing illegitimate stuff. For example, can a lawyer take a mortgage on a house? It's frightening."

David O. Markus, president of the Miami chapter of the Federal Bar Association and a Miami criminal defense attorney, was so concerned about his legal fees in representing Cali cocaine cartel kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela in 2006 that he, like Black, hired a lawyer to "vet" the fees.

During long hearings before U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, Markus sought to get a "blessing" for his fees, which ostensibly came from a book advance obtained by Rodriguez-Orejuela. Even Moreno tried to force prosecutors into "blessing" the fee. They refused.

"This is another message from the government that they don't want criminal defense lawyers being criminal defense lawyers," Markus said.

"Most lawyers find this offensive. If they can go after Ben Kuehne, who is as ethical and standup as there is, anyone is at risk."

Matt Axelrod, assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. attorney's office in Miami who prosecuted the Rodriguez-Orejuela case, declined to comment.

Michael Pasano, a partner in Washington-based Zuckerman Spaeder's Miami office who was hired by Markus to vet the fees, insists he is not nervous.

"I think that the two situations were much different and not in the least related," he said. "We represent a lot of law firms. This has not afforded me any concern. I remain comfortable."

But not everyone is as confident as Pasano. One potential byproduct of the indictment is that the legal act of vetting legal fees will most likely not be taken on by some attorneys in the future.

"The most dangerous job now is to be the vetter," Quinon said. "That's the guy in Vietnam walking the point."

Tannebaum agrees.

"There is no way I would feel comfortable vetting legal fees knowing that, if the government disagrees with my opinion, I could be prosecuted," he said.
 

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