Hassan Nemazee
An attorney for Democratic fundraiser Hassan Nemazee on Wednesday said his client is in discussions about resolving charges he tried to defraud three banks of more than $290 million, Dow Jones Newswires reports.
Nemazee, the national finance co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, is accused of using loan proceeds from one bank to pay off another over an 11-year period, from 1998 to 2009. The banks he allegedly defrauded in the Ponzi scheme are Bank of America, Citibank and HSBC Bank USA, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. He has been indicted on charges of aggravated identity theft and three counts of bank fraud, each of which carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Following a Wednesday hearing, Nemazee’s attorney Paul Shechtman told Dow Jones the parties are discussing a possible disposition in the case by late December. Schechtman wasn’t more specific. A disposition could include Nemazee pleading guilty to criminal charges or SDNY dropping the case. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John M. Hillebrecht and Daniel W. Levy.
The hearing is set for Dec. 21.
