Defence lawyers for Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, have filed nine separate pretrial motions ahead of his trial in the US Federal Court for bank fraud and sanctions busting due later this year.
The motions are intended to have the prosecution’s case against Ali Sadr dismissed before the beginning of the trial. The legal memoranda in support of the pre-trial motions total approximately 140 pages.
Prosecutors have asked the court to extend their deadline to reply to Ali Sadr’s lawyers and have promised to try to keep their response shorter than 140 pages. They have also asked the court to set a May 17 deadline for Ali Sadr’s reply to their response.
In the meantime at Ali Sadr’s request, the court has granted what is called a “franks hearing”, a court proceeding where the court is asked to determine if the FBI lied in obtaining a search warrant in his case.
Ali Sadr also made submissions based on ‘surplusage,’ jargon for accusing prosecutors of making allegations on him that are not relevant to the case being heard.
Ali Sadr is scheduled to be tried in October 2019 for alleged bank fraud and sanctions busting in years before he was licensed in Malta in 2014 to open Pilatus Bank. Pilatus Bank was shut down by the European Central Bank after Maria Efimova, employed briefly at the bank, blew the whistle on rampant money laundering at his bank in Malta.
