Sure, a federal judge dismissed a major indictment against Zhenli Ye Gon, accused of participating in an international methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy. For Ye Gon and his lawyers, there’s still plenty of court action left in litigation stemming from the criminal case.
A federal judge in Washington today checked in on one of the cases—a dispute about attorney fees—at a scheduling conference.
One of Ye Gon’s former lawyers, David Zapp, is suing Ye Gon for legal fees—$204,866.84, according to the complaint filed in November 2008 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Ye Gon hired Zapp, a solo practitioner in Manhattan, in April 2008. And he fired Zapp last November. Ye Gon has refused to pay a dime for any work Zapp performed, according to Zapp’s complaint. Click here for a copy. Ye Gon, who agreed to a $4.5 million retainer, is suing Zapp in a counterclaim that alleges malpractice. Ye Gon accuses Zapp of making unauthorized statements about the criminal case.
Manuel Retureta and A. Eduardo Balarezo, who represent Ye Gon in the criminal case since last October, represent Ye Gon pro bono in the attorney fee dispute, court records show. (Another one of Ye Gon’s former lawyers, Martin McMahon of D.C.’s McMahon & Associates, quit the defense team in August amid a dispute about fees. No suit has been filed.)
“This is, in essence, a case that boils down to money,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said today in court about the attorney fee suit.
Mediation in the dispute failed, according to court papers filed in August. Today, the lawyers hashed out a discovery schedule. But no trial date’s been set. Retureta of D.C.’s Retureta & Wassem said in court that he’s sure the mediator would like to have the parties back to “keep up his batting average.” Zapp is represented in the attorney fee dispute by D.C. solo practitioner David Nester.
Kollar-Kotelly raised an issue that could affect whether Zapp, in the end, is paid anything if he prevails: when the indictment was dismissed against Ye Gon last month, did that free up any funds the government had earlier seized during its investigation of Ye Gon? The availability of any money, Retureta said in court, “is not something that Mr. Zap can hang his hat on.”
Retureta and Balarezo have declined to discuss their financial arrangement in the Ye Gon case. The Justice Department has filed under seal court papers that reveal that Retureta and Balarezo were paid fees from money the government seized amid the criminal investigation of Ye Gon.
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