ATLANTA (CN) — An attorney for fugitive Venezuelan billionaire asked an Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday to overturn sanctions again his client for failing to appear at a deposition in the yearslong legal battle waged by victims of a Colombian terrorist kidnapping.
A Florida federal judge ruled against Samark Jose Lopez Bello and several of his companies in 2022 for defying court orders by failing to appear via Zoom for the deposition.
U.S. District Judge Robert Scola found in favor of the seven plaintiffs in the case, ruling that Lopez Bello and seven companies are “agencies or instrumentalities” of the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and that their blocked assets can be garnished by the surviving victims of a 2003 kidnapping to satisfy the Anti-Terrorism Act judgment originally entered in a 2013 lawsuit.
On Wednesday, an attorney for Lopez Bello asked a three-judge panel of the appeals court to overturn Scola’s ruling and put the case back on track for a jury trial.
“Mr. Lopez is not a terrorist,” attorney Adam Fels, of Fridman Fels & Soto, said. “He’s not an agency or instrumentality of the FARC. Not directly, not indirectly, not even using the six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon test.”
Fels was quickly interrupted by Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher, who set the tone for the arguments by saying sharply, “He could have sat for a deposition and just said that.”
While attorneys for Lopez Bello have characterized him as an innocent businessman, the U.S. Treasury Department and Justice Department have pegged him as the frontman for narcotics kingpin and former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah.
Lopez Bello is said by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Controls to have laundered money for El Aissami which was derived from the sale of cocaine manufactured by the FARC.
Both Lopez Bello and El Aissami are on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement most wanted list for international narcotics trafficking. The two were indicted in 2019 in the Southern District of New York for violating U.S. sanctions targeting former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Moros.
The State Department is offering rewards of $5 million and $10 million for information leading to Lopez Bello's or El Aissami's respective arrests.
Brasher and U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee, questioned Fels repeatedly to uncover a “legally valid reason” Lopez Bello could have had for failing to sit for the deposition.
Jordan seemed particularly incredulous that Lopez Bello could have been unprepared for the possibility that he would have to appear, even via Zoom.
“You knew he was going to have to face the music at some point,” Jordan said. “He is the domino on which everything else falls. If he’s an agency or instrumentality, then very likely all his companies are.”
Fels argued that Scola unfairly sped through the discovery process and made a “blanket prohibition” refusing to consider any further motions from Lopez Bello.
“The conduct that led to the default was the court’s mismanagement of its trial schedule and its misapplication of the Fugitive Disentitlement Doctrine,” Fels said, referring to the doctrine allowing courts to dismiss the lawsuits or appeals of fugitives from the law.
Fels insisted that his client would have sat for a deposition if he had received a two-day extension.
Biden-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu questioned whether Scola’s ruling was “extreme” and whether he could have applied a lesser sanction in the case.
But a lawyer for the plaintiffs said the harsh measure made sense considering the circumstances.
Miami attorney Richard Rosenthal told the panel that Lopez Bello has no funds that haven't been blocked by the Office of Foreign Asset Controls.
"There’s no way to fine him anything. There’s no way to threaten him with contempt,” Rosenthal said.
“He’s already a fugitive from justice hiding out in Venezuela, a country with no extradition treaty. He’s alleged by OFAC and our experts to be in the inner circle of the Maduro regime. They’re protecting him and coddling him. They are not going to turn him over. So, it’s an empty threat. There’s nothing Judge Scola could have done.”
Rosenthal told the panel that the notion that Lopez Bello would have showed up for the deposition after a two-day delay is a “myth.” At least one judge on the panel appeared to agree.
Referencing his previous service on two earlier Eleventh Circuit panels in appeals related to the case, Jordan said, “The way this record looks to me — from 2014 to two years ago to now — instinctively is that he was never going to sit for the deposition.”
Fels insisted that, if Scola’s order were overturned and the ability to file motions restored, his client would comply with a required deposition, as long as he can appear by video.
“We’re just asking to be treated like any other litigant,” Fels said. “We just want a fair shake.”
The panel did not indicate when it would reach a decision.
Follow @KaylaGoggin_CNS
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