Egyptian Coffins Successfully Detected and Recovered by Customs in Texas - Question of Proper Seizure Authority Remains - Updated August 10, 2012

Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency today announced the seizure of "two priceless Egyptian sarcophagi-type artifacts."  A CBP officer at the World Trade Bridge on the border with Mexico in Laredo, Texas is credited with the discovery that successfully recovered the pharaonic-era coffins.

No arrests were made and the transporter(s) has not been identified.  Meanwhile, the suggested legal authority given by CBP for seizing the coffins appears questionable even though there are legal arguments available that would support the seizure of the artifacts.

The coffins did not have export permits from Egypt.  "Working in coordination with HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and with Office of Assistant Chief Counsel, CBP on July 9 determined that the artifacts would be seized due to a lack of export documentation to substantiate legal exportation of the artifacts from Egypt," CBP says in a press statement.

But the United States is unable to enforce a foreign nation's export laws.  CBP incorrectly explains in its press release that "[t]hrough the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, the United States entered into a cultural property agreement with the Egyptian government to help protect archaeological and ethnological materials through import controls."  The United States and Egypt, however, do not have a bilateral agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) pursuant to the Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA).

[Sidebar: The CPIA is the federal law that implements in the U.S. the 1970 UNESCO Convention (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property).  It permits the U.S. to enact import protections and seize endangered cultural objects coming from nations which have a bilateral agreement with America.]

Last year, CBP authorities in Chicago misapplied the law in a case where officers seized a Nayarit figurine from Mexico.  The seizure was reportedly made on the basis of a violation of the CPIA because it was presumed that the United States and Mexico had a bilateral agreement in force under the CPIA.  But the U.S. and Mexico did not (and still do not) have such an agreement in place

Federal officials potentially could rely on the CPIA to seize the Egyptian coffins if they were stolen from a museum after January 12, 1983 and the artifacts were inventoried.  But CBP does not report that the coffins were unlawfully taken from a cultural institution in Egypt.

Federal authorities may choose to rely on alternative legal arguments, nevertheless, to seize, forfeit, and return the coffins to Egypt.  These legal theories are outlined in a 2011 blog post entitled Reclaiming Trafficked Egyptian Cultural Objects.

Instead of returning the coffins right away, the authorities could also choose to secure the coffins as evidence while they investigate and potentially indict suspects for possible violations of the law

CBP tells how the customs officer in Laredo "selected a shipment manifested as Egyptian sculptures for an enforcement examination. In the course of their examination, CBP officers discovered that the shipment included possible Egyptian antiquities . . . ."  CBP reports that it "had recently been made aware of possible stolen artifacts of Egyptian origin,"  It is unknown if the information the agency received was generic--such as the ICOM Red List--or whether CBP received specific intelligence about the shipment traveling through Texas.  In either case, the customs official at the border remained alert so as to intercept the cultural items.

CBP is to be commended for its detection and interdiction of the contraband Egyptian coffins.  Yet it is important that the agency accurately cite the proper legal authority for the seizure of the artifacts.  That is because the public relies on government officials for guidance so as to remain compliant with the law and to avoid the potential loss of property.

[UPDATE August 10, 2012: CBP has now revised its web-posted press release by striking any reference to the seizure of the Egyptian coffins under the authority of the federal Cultural Property Implementation Act. The agency finds support for the seizure by stating that neither sarcophagus had any accompanying export paperwork from Egypt.

CBP should clarify that it is not the lack of foreign regulatory paperwork that justifies the seizure of the cultural objects--although the lack of an export permit from Egypt can be an important piece of evidence to federal enforcement authorities--it is that American import and criminal laws are triggered by Egypt's legal ownership claims to the coffins.  The sarcophagi, for example, can be seized under 19 USC 1595a's "contrary to law" provision where there is probable cause to believe that the coffins constitute stolen property in the United States under the McClain/Schultz doctrine's interpretation of the National Stolen Property Act. To simplify, stolen property brought into the United States from abroad is contraband under federal law that may be seized by CBP officers and returned to the legal owner.]

CBP's press release may be found here.  Photos of the seized Egyptian coffins courtesy of CBP.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at http://culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2012 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. CONTACT: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

Bronx Surrogate Court Judge Lee Holtzman Found Guilty of Official Misconduct By The New York State Commission On Judicial Conduct

reposted from Parentadvocates.org

LINK
The charges stem from a complaint that the commission filed last year against Judge Holzman, who, as the Bronx surrogate since 1988, oversees wills and the estates of people who die without wills. The charges focused on excessive fees billed to estates by Michael Lippman, who was a lawyer for the public administrator in the Bronx, and what Judge Holzman did when he learned of the fees. Betsy Combier, Editor, adds: "It was Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Renee Roth who assisted Attorney Kenneth T. Wasserman and New York Public Administrator Ethel Griffin in stealing my mom's estate after her death. The CJC knew all about the Surrogate Courts' scams in the Bronx and in the other boroughs of New York City and New York State way before they took action in the case of Lee Holtzman. This is the theater of taking care of corruption, not a remedy.
           

Surrogate Lee Holtzman

July 23, 2012
Bronx Judge in Misconduct Case Should Be Forced Out, Head of Panel Says
By RUSS BUETTNER, NY TIMES
LINK

The administrator for the New York State Commission on Judicial Conductwill recommend that the Bronx surrogate judge, Lee L. Holzman, be removed from office as a result of hearings into charges of official misconduct, the panel announced Monday.

The charges stem from a complaint that the commission filed last year against Judge Holzman, who, as the Bronx surrogate since 1988, oversees wills and the estates of people who die without wills. The charges focused on excessive fees billed to estates by Michael Lippman, who was a lawyer for the public administrator in the Bronx, and what Judge Holzman did when he learned of the fees.

During a first round of hearings in December and January, Judge Holzman said that in 2006 he had been shocked to learn of the excessive fees and other accusations of malfeasance by Mr. Lippman and his supervisor, Esther Rodriguez, then the Bronx public administrator. Judge Holzman fired Ms. Rodriguez and set up a repayment plan for Mr. Lippman.

The referee who presided over those hearings, a retired State Supreme Court justice, Felice K. Shea, found that the commission’s lawyers proved that Judge Holzman should have fired Mr. Lippman and referred the matter for possible criminal prosecution.

Justice Shea said the evidence showed that Judge Holzman’s decisions were influenced by his “long and close relationship” with Mr. Lippman.

In a report issued last week, Justice Shea rejected a finding of misconduct on other charges, including that Judge Holzman should have disqualified himself from cases in which Mr. Lippman was involved during two years when Mr. Lippman helped with the judge’s re-election.

Robert H. Tembeckjian, the administrator for the Commission on Judicial Conduct, said he would recommend that the full panel remove Judge Holzman in its final hearings on the matter, scheduled for Sept. 20.

If the commission, which has 11 appointees, votes to remove Judge Holzman, he can still appeal to the state’s highest court.

Judge Holzman’s lawyer, David M. Godosky, said he was heartened that the referee rejected a misconduct finding on some charges and was confident that his client would prevail.

“We don’t think there is any merit to any of the claims, and ultimately all of them will be dismissed,” he said.

Judge Holzman has portrayed himself as a victim of dishonest employees. Ms. Rodriguez had direct supervisory responsibility for Mr. Lippman. And Judge Holzman said he only learned of Mr. Lippman’s billing practices after firing Ms. Rodriguez, whom Judge Holzman found to have made troubling payments from estates to a man for cleaning out the homes of deceased people. Ms. Rodriguez has since pleaded guilty to two felony counts and is awaiting sentencing.

The commission argued that Judge Holzman was responsible, by law, for making sure that the court’s employees followed proper procedures.

Mr. Godosky said Judge Holzman did not report Mr. Lippman for discipline and prosecution in 2006 because he did not yet feel he had sufficient evidence to prove such a serious allegation. Mr. Lippman continued to handle estates in the public administrator’s office until 2009. He was indicted in 2010 on grand larceny and other charges and is awaiting trial.

New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct Report on Bronx Surrogate Judge Lee Holtzman

Surrogate Judge Lee Holzman let lawyer pal loot estates, panel finds
BY GREG B. SMITH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER, Tuesday, September 13, 2011
LINK

Surrogate Judge Lee Holzman let cronies loot the estates of Bronx residents who died without wills, the court's watchdog agency charged Monday.

Holzman repeatedly approved dubious fees for a lawyer pal who was his chief campaign fund-raiser and allowed estate cases to languish for up to 10 years, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct charged.

Commission probers recommended the agency's board take disciplinary action against Holzman. The penalty could range from reprimand to removal.

The charges come two years after the Daily News exposed Holzman's lax oversight of estates in the Bronx, revealing fees the judge approved for his top fund-raiser, lawyer Michael Lippman.

Lippman, who raised $125,000 for Holzman's 2001 campaign, was for years counsel to the Bronx public administrator, whose office oversees estates.

In a complaint Monday, the commission said that between 1995 and mid-2009, Holzman repeatedly approved Lippman's fees without documentation that Lippman had done anything to earn them.

Over several years, Lippman collected "advances" on these fees at a time when he faced daunting debts, including foreclosure on a $400,000 mortgage and $1 million in gambling losses.

Last year, Lippman was arrested on charges of billing for $300,000 in work he hadn't performed. He's denied wrongdoing and awaits trial.

In the complaint, the judicial conduct investigators declared Holzman had "allowed a social, political . . . relationship to influence his judicial conduct."

The investigators found Holzman discovered problems with Lippman's fees, but didn't report him to law enforcement. Instead, he quietly tried to work out a repayment plan with Lippman.

Holzman's lawyer, David Godosky, called the commission's charges unwarranted and noted that Bronx prosecutors say Lippman deliberately deceived Holzman "in an effort to hide the excessive fees."

The commission said Holzman let some estate cases linger for up to a decade - and let a former public administrator hire her boyfriend to clean some of the properties. Investigators said the man billed for work he did not perform.

The complaint also said Holzman's lack of oversight resulted in the public administrator putting estate money into risky investments that went bad.

Last week, a judge rejected Holzman's bid to keep the charges secret. A hearing on the charges has been postponed because Holzman says he can't mount a fair defense because Lippman won't testify on his behalf as a result of his pending criminal case.

gsmith@nydailynews.com

In my case, the Surrogate Court in New York City was commissioned by Guide One Insurance Company, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church's Pastor Fred Anderson and the Trustees, Attorney Kenneth T. Wasserman, The NYC Public Administrator Ethel Griffin, and then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, followed by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (now Governor of New York State) to steal, plunder and control my mom's estate. If the Commission on Judicial Conduct, current Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and current NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo acted on behalf of all the people who have been harmed by the Surrogate Courts' RICO scam none of the massive theft would be happening. But nobody is doing anything, and are too afraid of Andrew Cuomo and his goons to do anything.

When Ethel J Griffin sells codos, where does the money go?

Betsy Combier

Kenneth T. Wasserman, Attorney and Fixer for the Courts
See:

The Corruption of New York State Courts: Andrew Cuomo and Grand Larceny in Surrogates' Court

Without a Prayer For Relief: The NY State Supreme Court is Bought By Guide One Insurance Company and a Church, Madison Avenue Presbyterian

RICO in the New York State Unified Court System: How the Courts Steal Your Property, Your Children, and Try To Destroy Your Life...And How You Can Stop Them

RICO in the Unified Court System

Bad News For Margarita Lopez Torres Who Loses Her Bid to Return NYC to a Fair and Independent Judicial Selection Process

The Corruption of Jonathan Lippman and the NY State Unified Court System

Religious Racketeering: The Insurance-Church-Judicial Complex

Judicial Corruption and Resources: A Personal View

The Surrogate Court Grave Robbers

re-posted from Parentadvocates.org

LINK

 
The subtitle of the article on the July 29, 2012 New York Post: "Judges' pals cashing in on estates in NY's crony-filled surrogates system". In NYS the grave-robbers are protected by Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman, Governor Andrew Cuomo, former Chief Judge Judith Kaye and her late husband's law firm, Proskauer Rose, which is protected by Attorney Michael Cardozo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Corporation Counsel and Mayor of New York City, respectively. My mom's estate was stolen from me on July 27, 1998 by court fixer Attorney Kenneth T. Wasserman and given to Public Administrator Ethel Griffin by retired Surrogate Judge Renee Roth, one of the Judges who would not comment on the article posted here. That's ok, Ms. Roth!!! We have the facts. Betsy Combier , Editor
           

How insiders snatch millions from estates in the scandal-scarred Surrogate Courts
By BRAD HAMILTON and MICHAEL GARTLAND, Last Updated: 10:59 AM, July 29, 2012
LINK

If you’re a lawyer in New York, there’s no sweeter deal than getting assigned to an estate case in Surrogate’s Court.

The work is often routine — selling assets, paying bills, contacting heirs — but the pay can reach into the millions.

Landing such a gig requires currying favor with one of the city’s seven surrogate judges, who handle wills and estates. They have the power to appoint lawyers and approve their sometimes jaw-dropping invoices.

The jobs often go to the judges’ friends, associates or campaign contributors, court authorities admit. Looting of the estates can sometimes result.

The most recent example involves Bronx Judge Lee Holzman, who last week faced removal from the surrogate bench after he signed off on legal work that was never done.

The bills, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, totaled $300,000 and went to the judge’s associate, lawyer Michael Lippman, a Democratic Party crony who ran Holzman’s campaign financing, raising $125,000, a court watchdog claims.

Lippman then got into money trouble himself, racking up $1 million in gambling debts and allegedly faking bills to cover his losses.

Prosecutors say they uncovered the cooked books and charged him with fraud.

Another alleged thief preyed on a lucrative and largely unsupervised part of the system — cases in which there is no will.

Such cases go to public administrators, who work with Surrogate’s Court judges in handling their finances.

In May, Richard Paul, the bookkeeper for the Brooklyn public administrator, was indicted for stealing $2.6 million from these estates, allegedly manipulating the check-writing process to get at the cash.

Judges who allow fraudulent pay-outs are “a disgrace to the legal profession and to the state of New York,” said Monroe Freedman, a Hofstra University professor and leading expert on legal ethics. “They should be removed from the bench and disbarred.”

Freedman said an entrenched system of favor-trading, with hints of bribery, has persisted for decades.

“They’re stealing from the client, which is one of the worst things you can do,” he said. “I can’t think of much worse. The judges are not only condoning it, but they’re helping lawyers do it.”

Even when there is no illegality, huge sums vanish.

A decade after Wall Street investment banker Ted Ammon was beaten to death in his East Hampton home, a group of politically connected lawyers pummeled his estate with $10 million in fees, records show.

That amounts to 20 percent of his $50 million fortune, well above the 6 percent rate that court administrators deem acceptable.

The staggering payments helped shrink the inheritance of Ammon’s adopted twin children — son Grego and daughter Alexa — to just $1 million each.

The hefty legal tab was rubber-stamped by Surrogate’s Court judges in Manhattan and Long Island.

One of them, former Manhattan Surrogate Eve Preminger, approved $4.3 million to a single firm, Schulte, Roth & Zabel.

That amounts to $9,710 per day between February 2002 and July 2003.

Preminger had personal ties to the firm. She privately worked with Schulte’s pointwoman on the case, lawyer Susan Frunzi. The two wrote a textbook, “Trusts and Estates Practice in New York,” together.

The judge also owned stock in JPMorgan Chase, which she approved as estate executor.

The bank picked Schulte, then submitted its own bill for $1.6 million.

After Ammon’s widow, Generosa, died of cancer in 2003, the matter moved to Surrogate’s Court in Suffolk County, where Gerard Sweeney, an insider with the Queens Democratic machine, made a windfall.

He and another lawyer, Michael Dowd, were executors to the estate of Generosa Ammon, but also got appointed as lawyers by the Suffolk judge, John Czygier.

Together they scooped up a cool $2.2 million.

Sweeney hired Eisner LLP, an accounting firm that charged $123,000 for just one month of work in April 2004.

State court authorities long ago recognized serious problems in the Surrogate’s Courts.

They conducted two blue-ribbon panel reviews, in 2001 and 2005, and found that there was “an opaque system that operates on the basis of connections and cronyism” and that its own rules were being ignored.

So in 2002, they pushed through reforms, barring court employees and political party leaders from getting fiduciary appointments.

Any lawyer who earns more than $75,000 in a given year on a single case he’s appointed to now must wait a year before getting a second appointment.

There’s also a “sunshine” provision that demands the court system publish the names of appointees and their fees on its official Web site.

But that hasn’t stopped the tide of scandal.

Former Brooklyn Surrogate Michael Feinberg was forced out in 2005 and disbarred for approving excessive fees of 8 percent to a law-school friend.

His successor, Frank Seddio, stepped down in 2007 amid a probe by the watchdog Commission on Judicial Conduct into allegations he sent campaign cash to political cronies.

A commission committee voted to boot Holzman last week, but he’s fighting to keep his job.

His defense is to claim that other surrogates did the same thing — namely, signing off on fat payments without examining invoices, a practice that court authorities say is not OK.

His examples, listed in rebuttal to the charges, include former Manhattan Surrogate Renee Roth, one of the four Ammon judges, who was ripped by the city bar association for handing two-thirds of her lucrative legal assignments to attorneys who funded her election.

Has anything really changed?

Not according to former Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Felice Shea, who was hired as a referee on the Holzman matter and dryly concluded last week that in Surrogate’s Courts “statutory compliance and transparency are not the norm.”

Court spokesman David Bookstaver said the new rules have greatly improved the system.

“They certainly lend themselves to much greater accountability and transparency and have gone a long way to increase the public’s understanding and confidence in the Surrogate Courts,” he said.

Preminger, Roth, Frunzi, Sweeney and Dowd did not return calls for comment.

Before his death in 2001, Ammon doted on children Grego and Alexa, who are now 21, but they stand to inherit far less than what has been paid to the court-approved experts — just $500,000 in cash each, plus $1million for them to share in a trust named after the widow Generosa.

That trust has only one other asset: the East Hampton home where their father was killed by Generosa’s husband, Danny Pelosi.

But the house, valued at $9 million, cannot be sold until their former nanny, Kathryn Ann Mayne, dies.

She gets to live there for free for as long as she wants.

Additional reporting by Alex Freeman

brad.hamilton@nypost.com

Bronx Surrogate Court Judge Lee Holtzman Found Guilty of Official Misconduct By The New York State Commission On Judicial Conduct

Oh - in 1994 the husband of former Judge Eve Preminger was disbarred. He was re-instated in 2010 with the recommendation of Federal Judge Laval, who told the disciplinary committee that Friedman's
disbarment was "unfair".

A Lawyer Is Disbarred For Lapses Of Ethics
By SETH FAISON, NY TIMES, Published: March 23, 1994
LINK

Correction Appended

A prominent Manhattan lawyer was ordered disbarred yesterday for unethical conduct that included making false statements after a Federal judge accused him of improperly slipping a piece of evidence to the jury, then trying to blame his co-counsel when the judge found out.

A panel of five judges from the New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division based its decision to disbar the lawyer, Theodore H. Friedman, on what it identified as 13 instances of unethical conduct growing out of two personal injury cases. The panel decided the instances "were not simply inadvertent or solitary peccadillos" but "consisted of a pattern of professional misconduct."

"For this court to impose any other sanction would ignore our responsibility to the legal profession and the public," wrote the judges, led by Judge Francis T. Murphy. Jury Verdict Ignored

In making its decision, the appellate judges overruled a disciplinary committee of the First Judicial Department of the Appellate Division, which recommended that Mr. Friedman, a negligence lawyer, be suspended for two years. It also ignored a jury verdict in 1988 that acquitted Mr. Friedman of charges that he tried to bribe potential trial witnesses in a wrongful death suit against New York City.

Mr. Friedman and his lawyer, Michael S. Ross, said they were stunned by the decision to disbar and would appeal. Mr. Ross said several prominent Federal and state judges wrote letters to the panel to attest to Mr. Friedman's good character, including Judith S. Kaye, chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals.

"A jury heard the same charges for four weeks and rejected them in a half-hour," Mr. Friedman said last night. "I don't know how a court could come to so contrary a view. I hope that an appellate court will correct this error." To Be Struck From Rolls

While the Court of Appeals determines whether it will consider the case, Mr. Friedman is to be struck from the rolls of the New York State Bar on April 22.

Mr. Friedman, 62, was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1957, a year after he graduated from Harvard Law School. He is not a member of the bar in any other state, said his wife, Eve Preminger, a Surrogate's Court judge in Manhattan.

"I am shattered by this horrible miscarriage of justice," Judge Preminger said last night. "As his wife for 30 years, I can say that my husband is the most honorable lawyer I know. As a judge, I would hope that the court would go beyond the referee's findings and examine the total record, which exonerates my husband."

Several lawyers and acquaintances of Mr. Friedman's described him as a highly successful lawyer who has collected millions of dollars in contingency fees -- payments based on a percentage of the award or settlement -- by representing clients in personal injury suits against individuals, companies and governments.

In 1992, he won a $58.77 million suit for a New York family whose son was seriously injured in a car accident near Cannes, France. He also represented the family of Libby Zion, who sued New York Hospital after she died mysteriously in 1984.

Frank Rosiny, chairman of the New York State Bar Committee on Professional Guidelines, said that fewer than 100 lawyers are disbarred each year in New York State, where more than 100,000 lawyers currently practice. Another lawyer said that most lawyers who are disbarred have been convicted of criminal wrongdoing, like stealing money from a client, unlike Mr. Friedman, who was accused of ethical lapses.

The earliest incident cited by the judges stemmed from a case that was filed in 1978 by Mr. Friedman, who was representing a woman whose husband died in a ship collision. The trial began in 1981 before Judge Pierre S. Leval in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

During the trial, Judge Leval denied a request by Mr. Friedman to include an expert's report as an exhibit, but said Mr. Friedman could refer to it in his summation. After the jury decided in favor of Mr. Friedman's client, it was discovered that the report had been sent with other exhibits to the jury room during deliberations.

Mr. Friedman swore in an affidavit that his co-counsel, Frederick J. Cuccia, was responsible for sending the exhibit to the jury, but Mr. Cuccia was out of the country at the time. Mr. Cuccia later denied responsibility, and the judges ruled yesterday that Mr. Friedman knowingly made false statements in his affidavit.

Most of the instances of unethical behavior reported in yesterday's ruling stem from a second case, in which Mr. Friedman represented the wife of a man who fell down an elevator shaft in 1979 in her suit against New York City.

An investigator hired by Mr. Friedman, Elliot Goldman, was accused of trying to bribe a potential witness in the case. Mr. Goldman was convicted of bribery and solicitation of perjury in 1987.

Mr. Friedman was also indicted for trying to induce a witness to lie in court, but he was acquitted in a Manhattan court in 1988.

Correction: March 24, 1994, Thursday An article yesterday about Theodore H. Friedman, a Manhattan lawyer who was ordered disbarred for unethical conduct, referred incorrectly in some editions to the post held by his wife, Eve Preminger. She is a judge in Surrogate's Court in Manhattan, not a State Supreme Court justice.

Without A Prayer For Relief

Unveiling the Import and Export of Trafficked Heritage: The Kapoor/Art of the Past Case Examined

Source: Tamil Nadu Police

International antiquities trafficking networks will utilize legitimate and illegitimate shipping methods to advance cultural heritage crimes.  That is why a consideration of the solutions to combat illegal antiquities trafficking must examine how objects are imported and exported. The current American and Indian investigations into Subhash Kapoor offer a timely case study into the alleged transnational smuggling of cultural heritage.

Kapoor is currently under arrest in India, charged with idol trafficking.  He is an American citizen who owns Art of the Past gallery and Nimbus Import Export on Madison Avenue in New York.  Click here and here for further details.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that Homeland Security Investigations' (HSI) involvement in the case began in February 2007 after having been contacted by the government of India.  "The Indian Consulate advised HSI that an import and export company was expecting the arrival of a shipment containing seven crates manifested as 'Marble Garden Table Sets.' The consulate believed these crates contained stolen Indian antiquities. This merchandize (sic) was allegedly imported by Kapoor."

APL Alexandrite

The bill of lading reveals that the shipment weighed 1400 kg (3086 lb.) and occupied seven containers. The merchandise is described as "Garden Table Set."  The shipper is listed as Palae Knit Exports in Ludhianda, India.  The shipment left Jawaharlal Nehru, India on the Singapore flagged ship, APL Alexandrite, before arriving at the port of New York on February 10, 2007. The receiver of the goods is listed as Nimbus Import Export, Inc. with an address in West Nyack, NY. (It is important to note that neither the shipper nor the shipping company are implicated in any wrongdoing.)

A few interesting highlights about this shipment, which may have alerted customs agents at the border, are that:

• it was the weight of a subcompact car and not a garden table set;
• the exporter was a garments and textiles supplier and not an outdoor furniture or stone supplier;
• Nimbus Import Export, Inc. is Kapoor's import company, and he owns an antiquities shop rather than a garden furniture company; and
• the shipping address of the company is not the same as the one listed in official New York State records. (As reported on July 18 on this blog, Nimbus Import Export's officially listed address is in Manhattan, at the same place as Kapoor's Art of the Past gallery, and not in West Nyack, NY.)

Comparing additional import records associated with Nimbus to information collected by Indian police yields further information about how cultural artifacts may have entered the United States.  Bills of lading explain that Nimbus Import Export received the following listed merchandise from Everstar International Services since 2006 (spelling errors in the original electronic bills of lading):

• Handicraft Items (brass Ganesh, Brass Krishna, Brass Deve, Brass Nandhi) - U.S. arrival: 2/28/06
• Indian Hand Made Artistic Handicraft Articles -  U.S. arrival: 6/10/06
• Indian Hand Made Artistic Handictaft Artickes (brass Ganesh,brass Deepalakshmi,brass Murugan) -  U.S. arrival: 8/5/06
• India Hand Made Artistic Handicraft Articles -  U.S. arrival: 9/13/06
• Indian Artistic Handicraft -  U.S. arrival: 12/27/06

A 2009 document, published by the Idol Wing of the Tamil Nadu Police Department and which details the alleged trafficking of idols to the United States, reports that arrested export agent Packia Kumar ran a company called Ever Star International Services.  Everstar  (as it is spelled in the import records) purportedly exported newly crafted statues mixed with illicit commodities.  The report says that "part of the stole[n] antique idols were mingled with [n]ew metal idols. (Like 2 or 3 stolen idols with 4 or 5 new metal idols) and presented the export invoice with a false affidavit that all the idols in the consignment were recently manufactured."  The report goes on to describe how the export certificates listed the idols as  "Artistic Handicraft Products," and names Nimbus as the receiver of the alleged illegal exports.  This information confirms the information listed in the bills of lading outlined above.

Meanwhile, ICE describes the types of cultural objects that made their way to Kapoor in the United States, which went undetected by customs officials at the border (except for those objects perhaps recovered following the 2007 tip-off by Indian authorities, but it is unclear from ICE's press release what action the agency took in response to the call received from the Indian consulate). "By the end of January 2012, HSI special agents had seized dozens of antiquities" in New York, according to a July 26 ICE press release, including

• a 1600 pound Buddha head
• a life sized stone figure weighing 500 pounds
• three Chola period bronze sculptures, depicting Uma Parvati, Sivagami Amman, and Murugan
• A sandstone statue depicting Kubera, chief of the Yakshas, from the Indian Gupta period;
• a grey schist statue depicting Herkules-Vajrapani from the Kandahran Kushan period; and
• a sculpture depicting Shakyamuni Buddham from the Indian Chola period.

"This investigation has uncovered that Kapoor allegedly created false provenances to disguise the histories of his illicit antiquities," concludes ICE.

Art of the Past gallery in New York posts "Closed for Inventory,"
one day after ICE raided Subhash Kapoor's storage units.

Examining the import and export methods surrounding the Kapoor case not only can aid police in the United States and India in their current investigations targeting the alleged idol thief, but it can help policymakers, criminologists, and scholars think about better ways to detect, uncover, interdict, and prosecute future crimes of heritage trafficking. Indeed, the Kapoor case may even be the one that prompts stakeholders to give serious consideration to WikiLoot, a proposal that Chasing Aphrodite author Jason Felch describes as "an initiative to crowd-source the fight against the black market in looted antiquities."

Meanwhile, as museums and collectors hopefully research their collections to discover whether they own pieces acquired from Kapoor, they should take note that even modern and legitimately imported items in their collections may have been used to mask potentially illegal shipments of cultural objects.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at http://culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2012 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. CONTACT: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

NYC Public Administrator Ethel Griffin Wants Heiress Huguette Clark's Estate

Huguette Clark's beneficiaries may have to give back gifts

RICH SCHAPIRO

Saturday, June 16, 2012

LINK

Heiress Huguette Clark

Reclusive Manhattan heiress Huguette Clark lavished her caretakers with million-dollar mansions, rare violins and coveted works of art.

But if the court-appointed official overseeing Clark’s estate gets her way, her newly rich former nurses and doctors will have to return the gifts.

Public administrator Ethel Griffin has asked a court to force Clark’s ex-staffers to give up the goods, saying they manipulated the copper heiress into leaving them the stunning largess.

The effort is part of Griffin’s bid to reclaim $37 million for the $400 million estate, The Associated Press reported.

“It does not appear that anyone in a position of power or authority ever intervened to ensure that Mrs. Clark possessed the requisite capacity to make gifts and was acting of her own free ill,” Deputy Public Administrator Joy Thompson wrote in last month’s filing.

Clark died last year at age 104. The heir to a copper fortune, Clark had no kids and left nothing in her will to family members.

Among those targeted by Griffin is Clark’s private nurse, Hadassah Peri.

She was showered with almost $28 million, including three Manhattan apartments, two homes elsewhere and a $1.2 million Stradivarius violin.

Peri’s family received an additional $3 million.

Peri’s lawyer disputed the claim that she took advantage of Clark.

“(Clark) was a very generous woman” who made gifts to people she rarely or never saw, said the lawyer, Harvey Corn.

“It’s absurd to think that she would not give gifts to the individuals who worked with her.”

A handful of other nurses and doctors were gifted more than $4 million.

Members of Clark’s medical staff weren’t the only ones to make out like bandits.

Accountant Irving Kamsler got $435,000 in gifts, while lawyer Wallace Bock was given $60,000.

In an especially bizarre bounty, Bock was also rewarded with a $1.8 million contribution from Clark for a security system for the Israeli settlement where his daughter lives.

“The record will show that Wally Bock acted in Huguette Clark’s interest at all times,” said his lawyer John Dadakis.

With News Wire Services

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

Generosity of an heiress: four homes for a nurse, gifts for attorney's family

As the investigation continues, a former paralegal describes efforts to persuade Huguette Clark to sign a will

1. • Jump to photos The Clarks: An American story of wealth, scandal, mystery

Christopher Sadowski

Wallace "Wally" Bock, attorney for Huguette Clark, outside his office in Manhattan on Thursday, after the district attorney began investigating his client's finances.

By Bill Dedman Investigative reporter

NBC News

updated 9/1/2010 7:02:47 AM ET

LINK

NEW YORK — Huguette Clark, the reclusive 104-year-old heiress, is known as generous toward those who care for her, including her social secretary, who received a $10 million gift. It's now clear that her longtime nurse has also been a recipient: To her, Clark has given the money to buy four homes for her family.

Clark also has made gifts benefiting her attorney's family, including a dollhouse worth more than $10,000 and a $1.5 million security system for the settlement where the attorney's daughters and grandchildren live in Israel.
Cynthia Garcia, a paralegal who worked for two years for Clark's attorney, Wallace "Wally" Bock, described those gifts in an interview with msnbc.com. Garcia also said that Bock and Clark's accountant drafted a will that would have left money to Bock, trying repeatedly to persuade her to sign it — then joked about their client and cursed her behind her back when she would not sign the will.
The paralegal also said that attorney Bock called her last week after investigators started looking into Clark's affairs, encouraged her to leave town, and offered to pay for an attorney to represent her, who then told her not to talk to investigators or the press.
A spokesman for Bock acknowledged the gifts, but said that he acted "appropriately, professionally and consistent with her wishes."
Msnbc.com reported last week that the Manhattan district attorney is investigating the finances of the 104-year-old Clark, daughter of a Montana copper miner and heiress to one of America's great fortunes. The DA's Elder Abuse Unit has detectives looking at transactions in her bank accounts, as well as the sale of her Stradivarius violin for $6 million and a Renoir painting for $23.5 million.
Her wealth, estimated at half a billion dollars, is managed by her attorney, Bock, 78, of Queens, N.Y., and her certified public accountant, a convicted felon named Irving H. Kamsler, 63, of the Bronx, N.Y. The men have not been accused of a crime.
Full coverage: 'The Clarks, an American story of wealth, mystery and scandal'
Msnbc.com also reported that the attorney and accountant became the owners of the New York City apartment of another elderly client after his last will and testament was revised six times.
Private nurse on call Clark is said to be alert and in good health for her age, but she left her Fifth Avenue apartment for hospital rooms some 22 years ago. A few years later, she hired a nurse through an agency, and that nurse has been with her ever since.

Associated Press

This is the last known photo of Huguette Clark, taken Aug. 11, 1930, the day of her divorce, in Reno, Nev.

Hadassah Peri, 60, is an immigrant from the Philippines and a registered nurse. She has spent long hours at the hospital as Clark's private nurse and is on call 24 hours a day, according to her attorney, John P. Reiner. Property records show that Peri owns at least six properties in the New York area, including four that Peri's attorney confirmed were gifts from her employer.
Clark gave Peri the cash in 2000 and 2001 to buy two apartments in Manhattan, on E. 96th Street near Park Avenue, for Peri's children to use as dorms while they were in college, the attorney said. They're valued between $200,000 and $350,000 each, according to property records.
There also is a two-unit house near Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, near the Peri family home. Clark offered to buy this house so there would be room for Peri's visiting family to stay. It's valued at about $700,000.
Finally, there's a vacation house next to a golf course on the Jersey Shore near Long Branch, N.J., valued at about $500,000.
Peri referred all questions to her attorney, Reiner, who said Clark bought the four homes for Peri and her family as gifts to thank her for nearly 20 years of attentive service.
The paralegal Cynthia Garcia, the former paralegal for Clark's attorney who has been interviewed by the DA, described expensive gifts that benefitted the family of attorney Bock — including the dollhouse and the security system. She first described these gifts in Saturday's New York Post.
Bock's spokesman, Michael McKeon, confirmed that those two gifts were made, but he said the paralegal has many of the details wrong and is just seeking "her 15 minutes of fame."

Courtesy of Cynthia Garcia

Cynthia Garcia, former paralegal for Wallace "Wally" Bock, attorney for heiress Huguette Clark.

Cynthia Garcia, 42, worked for Bock from 2000 to 2002, and now lives in Florida.
She told msnbc.com that Clark gave Bock's granddaughter an antique Barbie dollhouse worth more than $1 million. Bock's spokesman, McKeon, said the dollhouse was neither an antique, nor a Barbie dollhouse, and was worth somewhere in the five figures, between $10,000 and $100,000.
Garcia also said Bock solicited from Clark a check for $1.5 million after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to build the security system, which Garcia called a "bomb shelter," for the community in Israel where his daughters and their families live.
McKeon, Bock's spokesman, said Clark did make a donation of about $1.5 million to the community in Israel, but it was not to Bock's family. He said it was for a sophisticated security system for the community — not a bomb shelter — and that the money was handled scrupulously through an attorney inIsrael, with money placed in an escrow account and paid out as needed for the installation. If Bock's family were to leave the community, McKeon said, the security system would stay.
New York state ethics rules prohibit lawyers from soliciting gifts from clients "for the benefit of the lawyer or a person related to the lawyer," but allow some gifts that are volunteered.
'Consistent with her wishes' Huguette ("hue-GET") Marcelle Clark is the last surviving child of William Andrews Clark (1839-1925), a copper miner and U.S. senator who in his time was described by The New York Times as neck and neck with John D. Rockefeller for the title of richest American. Huguette, born in Paris and married only briefly, had no children. She has lived as a recluse for several decades, leaving unoccupied her three empty homes in California, Connecticut and New York City. Her attorney, Bock, has said he is the first of her seven attorneys to meet her, and that even he has met her only twice.

Copper King Mansion Bed And Breakfast, Butte, Mont.

Huguette Clark, heiress to a copper fortune, has been secluded for decades. In June she turned 104 in a New York hospital.

In an interview with msnbc.com, the former paralegal Garcia made several other claims about the conduct of Clark's lawyer and accountant.
Kamsler and Bock have not responded to repeated requests for explanation, but McKeon offered point-by-point rebuttals to some of Garcia's claims, and also issued a blanket statement on Bock's behalf:

Homeland Security Investigations Returns Artifacts to Nigeria - No Arrests or Indictments Announced

Nok statues repatriated to Nigeria.  ICE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) officials found themselves busy in New York today.  ICE raided a Manhattan storage area linked to an alleged antiquities trafficking network.  Meanwhile, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) repatriated ten Nok statues and one carved tusk to Nigeria.

James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of HSI New York, commented on the return of the Nigerian cultural objects seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection:  "Smugglers who thrive on greed place very little interest in the preservation of cultural property when they plunder ancient artifacts to sell to the highest bidder."  No arrests or indictments were announced.

ICE reported in a press statement that "HSI special agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) first learned of the stolen Nok statues in April 2010 after receiving information from French customs officials. . . . HSI Chicago had also previously seized two Nok statues and a carved ivory tusk at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.  After an investigation with assistance from French authorities, the Louvre in Paris, Interpol and the International Council of Museums, HSI special agents determined the Nok statues were in fact antiquities and not just handicrafts and personal effects as was diclosed on the importation documents provided to U.S. authorities."

Nigerian Consul General Habib Baba Habu pledged that the "ten figurines and one carved tusk will be returned to the national museum for display, at a ceremony to be presided by the minister of foreign affairs."

Nigeria does not have a bilateral agreement with the United States under the Cultural Property Implementation Act.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog, Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at http://culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com.  Post text copyrighted 2012 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC.  CONTACT: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

U.S. Investigators Retrieve Cultural Objects from Kapoor's Rented Storage in New York - What Might Happen Next?

Source: ICE

American authorities participating in the Subhash Kapoor investigation today seized cultural and religious artifacts from a storage facility in Manhattan, according to the New York Post.  The newspaper reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took away several dozen pieces.

Kapoor, an American citizen and owner of both Art of the Past gallery and Nimbus Import Export in Manhattan, is accused by police in India of involvement in antiquities trafficking.  Artifacts from Kapoor are reportedly located in American museums' collections.

The New York Post article describes today's raid and tells about a prior seizure of artifacts: 

"ICE said the probe into Kapoor had previously results in the seizure of dozens of antiquities worth nearly $10 million, including a five-foot tall head of Buddha weighing about 1,600 pounds and a life-sized stone figure weighing about 500 pounds. 'Both items were also seized from a storage unit allegedly leased by Kapoor in New York,' ICE said.

"ICE said that some of the artifacts previously seized in the probe had been displayed in 'major international museums worldwide,' and that other pieces that match those listed as stolen 'are still openly on display in some museums.'

"ICE also said that the Indian Consulate in New York contacted Homeland Security investigators in February 2007 asking for help in a probe of smuggling of Indian antiquities into New York."

It is unknown whether the raids in New York are part of a federal investigation into violations of U.S. criminal and/or import laws, or whether ICE executed the search warrants simply to support the investigation and prosecution of Kapoor in India.  In either case, federal authorities may be contacting museums across the United States that have acquired objects from Kapoor.  Forfeiture actions and/or search warrants may be forthcoming if Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) develops probable cause to believe that accessioned objects may be linked to illegal artifacts trafficking.

The New York Post article appears here in its entirety.

UPDATE 7/26/12: The New York Times is now reporting that the "Manhattan District Attorney’s office issued an arrest warrant for the dealer, Subhash Kapoor, on charges of possessing stolen property."

It should be remembered that prosecutors applying New York state law recently charged and convicted Arnold Peter Weiss, even as federal authorities worked with the Manhattan District Attorney's office to investigate the coin case.  This example of federal-state cooperation may be taking place now in the Kapoor case.  An arrest warrant issued for Kapoor by a county prosecutor's office (the New York County District Attorney, a.k.a. the Manhattan District Attorney) may signal the Manhattan DA's increased determination to deploy state law to combat culture crime.  In fact, District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. recently concluded a prosecution that convicted ivory dealers under New York criminal law.  That case saw a collaborative investigation between the DA's office, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the federal United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&W).

Federal-state cooperation and the use of state criminal law--as opposed to federal criminal law--to prosecute international antiquities trafficking may be taking shape in New York City, which is the heart of the antiquities market.

The United States and India have an extradition treaty.

UPDATE 7/26/12: NBC4 in New York has video of the raid.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at http://culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com.  Text copyrighted 2012 Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC.  CONTACT: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

Favorite Lawyer Phrases: "I Don't Know" and "It Depends"

I have been an attorney now for 14 years. One of the first things I learned in law school still reverberates in my head. People will forever have questions but unfortunately we may not always have a "good" answer. Legal Questions were asked in class, and the lawyer was taught to respond:

"It depends."

This answer may not satisfy anyone but it is the truth. Certain legal things (issues) depend on whether or not the facts of a given situation look black, white, or a shade of grey. Not everything is clear cut or definite, this is especially true in the practice of law.

We must often weigh, balance, assess, analyze, and look at things from different view points.

This is what I love about lay people practicing law. I am being facetious now but without CONTEXT legal decisions, laws, statutes, rights, and past precedents (law applied to the facts of a past case) are without perspective and understanding. This is the real danger with people looking up stuff on the internet. It is a good start but you need a guide, a counselor, an interpreter to place things in their place and time.

Placing Things in Your Head

I used to tell my young kids I couldn't explain certain things to them (usually sexual) because they did not have a shelf in their brains to place it upon. It had no place to go accept to fall out their mouths. That is why I give my clients a grand overview of the legal process so they have a timeline and a place to put legal events.

EXPERTISE IS HANDS ON
Yes, we need lawyers, just as we need doctors, just as we need plumbers. Professionals know what to do, and more impotantly what not to do in any given situation.

I have watched You Tube videos on fixing my toilet. It seemed simple enough, twist a few wrenches, and voila everything fixed. So off to Loew's I went . . .

DIY (Do It Yourself)

The truth was that the hands on "know how" of when that old nut and bolt wouldn't move, and my applying force to something that required finesse ended with me stripping the screw. My wife loves to remind me, hey you can't do everything great! Call in the expert. yeah, we need experts because without them we are lost. The job may often cost alot more than a stripped bolt or screw.

Which brings me to my second favorite phrase. I learned this in Chiropractic college:

"I don't Know"

Yeah, guess what, I don't know everything. I never have, and I never will know it all. I am continually learning, and the world and the law keep changing. That is the value of keeping up and staying current. Seminars, books, and conferences are not for credit hours to renew my licenses. They are picked for interest, and I am excited to attend them. I talk a lot, this can be good and bad, trust me, but I also listen to people. I try to learn something new everyday. Everyone is my teacher. I am forever a student of life and of learning.

I tell people if I don't know BUT I will find out. Sometimes New York law may state one thing BUT a judge or a District Attorney in a certain location interprets or applies something differently. This is not wrong or illegal just an opinion of how something should be. I must deal and work with these people as will my clients. Do I agree with everything that I see and hear? NO, but I must respect it and work with it.

This is where real world experience and not that which comes from a book really pays off. You can never teach experience, you have to live it. Just as you can't teach or explain being a head on parent, husband, or son, it is something to be lived.

Lawrence (Larry) Newman, D.C., J.D.

Doctor of Chiropractic

Attorney and Counselor at Law

504 North Aurora Street

Ithaca, NY 14850

607-229-5184

http://www.ithacadwi.com

http://www.ithacainjurylawyer.com

Ithaca Law, Sometimes it is Just the Timing

With the FIRST RULE of buying and selling of Real Estate it is so often a matter of the location of the property. Value of land and homes is based first and foremost on their location. I have done prior blogs on the legal phenomena (as location relates to law) of "Location, Location, Location" or the how and why of where something occurs (crime and/or injury) as being pivotal to it's outcome/result.

Today I would like to explore the SECOND RULE of value assessment. What something is worth is also based upon timing. What time you buy or sell is critical to the asset's value. This is also remarkably true in the legal arena. When you get charged (violation date), when you get suspended and/or revoked and/or settled (conviction date) can be crucial to your future issues. Sometimes I review a case, and the timing of a driving (or criminal) history is absolutely terrible. Sometimes people luck out, they just miss specific time periods, what I call being "out of the Zone of danger."

It's All in the Timing

Suspensions and/or license revocations are based on the number of negative events (violations, traffic offenses, misdemeanors, accidents, DWIs, etc.) within a given time period. Whether you have had a certain number of speeds, points, and/or accumulated negative units these are all marked along a linear spectrum of time.

There are very specific look back periods. For a potential New York State DMV license suspension and/or revocation this is 18 months. If you have 3 speeds and/or 11 points within that time frame, boom you are done. If some of these points are NEGATED and/or some of these charges can be changed can impact a final outcome greatly.

Trying to Game the System

Many have tried to outplay the DMV. They figured if they prolonged their cases (their pending charges) then they could change the timing and hence have NO suspension. The DMV is smarter than that. Violations are recorded (assessed) from the date they are charged NOT settled/disposed of.

RULE #1

So it is NOT the date of conviction but the date of violation that counts.

Licenses are Suspended at the Beginning of New York DWIs

Do you get credit for time served (license suspension time)? NO!

RULE #2

With a term (Court sentence) of license suspension and/or revocation the time period BEGINS at the final hearing/settlement/ date of conviction.


So whatever is the worst outcome/pain for you is usually the correct answer. There is more beyond these two rules, as to New York State charge enhancements, sentencing enhancements, and whether you can or cannot do certain programs (ie. the DDP, drinking driver program). Enhancement is a nice way of saying upcharge, and higher penalties.

Lawrence (Larry) Newman, D.C., J.D.

Doctor of Chiropractic

Attorney and Counselor at Law

504 North Aurora Street

Ithaca, NY 14850

607-229-5184

http://www.ithacadwi.com

http://www.ithacainjurylawyer.com