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Disqualification of Counsel Did Not Vioalte Sixth Amendment; Court May Hear Appeals Filed Outside 10-Day Window

By Jonathan Byrne

US v. Urutyan: Urutyan was convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft, based on a scheme to collect PINs from an ATM at a convenience store where he (and other conspirators) worked. Once they had the numbers, the conspirators withdrew about $600,000 from various accounts and wired the money to Russia and Armenia. Urutyan was initially represented by appointed counsel, but eventually retained a California attorney to represent him. Investigation prior to trial revealed that the attorney was being paid by a nearly anonymous third party, likely from some of the proceeds of the conspiracy, and that the attorney was not properly accounting for the cash payments made with the IRS. After a hearing, the district court disqualified retained counsel...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Circuit Blog on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).