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Bridge Capital hires Dotts as counsel in Lao PDR’s application for subpoena
Veteran lawyer Michael W. Dotts informed the U.S. District Court for the NMI yesterday that he is representing John K. Baldwin’s Bridge Capital LLC in connection with Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s application for issuance of subpoena.
As this developed, Dotts and attorney William M. Fitzgerald, counsel for the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, filed Monday a stipulation extending time to respond to Lao PDR’s application for issuance of subpoena.
The lawyers agreed that the reasons for such extension is that the schedule of Dotts and the press of other business make it difficult to respond to the application.
The parties agreed that Bridge Capital LLC’s opposition to the application shall be filed on or before July 17, 2015 and that Lao PDR’s reply shall be filed on or before July 31, 2015.
The lawyers also stipulated that the hearing on the application issue, currently scheduled for Aug. 13, 2015, shall be continued to Aug. 20, 2015 at 10:30am.
In the application, Fitzgerald disclosed that Baldwin is under criminal and tax investigations in Lao PDR for allegedly bribing Lao PDR officials over $300,000 that caused termination of an audit and also cost the Lao government $70 million in lost tax revenue over a five-year period from the operations of Baldwin group’s casino.
Fitzgerald asked the federal court to allow Lao PDR to serve a subpoena pursuant to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and U.S. statute on Bridge Capital located in Saipan, and on Bridge Capital chief financial officer David Jensen, in connection with the criminal and tax investigations in Laos and in connection with two international arbitration proceedings pending in Singapore.
The lawyer revealed that both the Lao proceedings and the arbitration proceedings directly involve entities owned and/or controlled by Baldwin and Shawn Scott, who own Bridge Capital LLC.
Fitzgerald asked the court to issue the subpoenas in order for Lao PDR locate the evidence needed to establish criminal activity in the Lao PDR and to support its claims and defenses before the international arbitral tribunal.
