SDNY: Law Firm's Role in BDO Tax Fraud Case Presents Conflict of Interest

New York Law Journal, Law Firm's Role in BDO Tax Fraud Case Presents Conflict, Judge Finds:

A federal judge has told attorneys with Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal there is no way the firm can represent both an alleged tax fraud conspirator and a cooperating witness for the government.

Southern District of New York Judge William Pauley said that a "clear conflict of interest" exists where one Sonnenschein attorney represents former BDO Seidman partner and now cooperator Adrian Dicker and another represents former BDO Seidman CEO Denis Field. ... Pauley, in a written opinion in United States v. Daugerdas, 09 cr 581, said potential and actual conflicts of interest between the two partners were such that he was granting a prosecution motion to disqualify Flessner from representing Field on the attorney fee issue.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Feb. 28 for Field and five co-defendants who are being prosecuted for tax shelters that were marketed to clients with the help of false and fraudulent opinion letters issued by the law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist.

The government alleges that taxpayers lost $1 billion in tax revenue from the conspiracy that included Field and his co-defendants -- Jenkens & Gilchrist's Paul M. Daugerdas, Erwin Mayer and Donna Guerin and Deutsche Bank's Raymond Craig Brubaker and David Parse.