The United States Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit today unanimously reversed a trial court’s
ruling dismissing a fraud case brought against the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR). The result of the appellate
court’s ruling is that CAIR National, operating out
of the District of Columbia, must stand trial and allow a jury to hear all of
the evidence of the massive fraud and attempted cover up carried out by CAIR
and perpetrated against hundreds of CAIR fraud victims.
In January of last year, Judge Paul
Friedman, the federal judge presiding over a five-year old lawsuit alleging
that CAIR defrauded hundreds of Muslim and non-Muslim clients, issued a
shocking ruling when he summarily dismissed the lawsuit, which was brought in
the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Immediately, the American Freedom
Law Center (AFLC) and the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi appealed, asking the
D.C. Circuit to reverse Judge Friedman and reinstate the plaintiffs’ claims
against CAIR.
The appellate court heard oral
arguments in February of this year. Judge Sri Srinivasan, often mentioned
as one of the judge’s on the President’s short list to fill a slot on the U.S.
Supreme Court, sat as Chief Judge for the 3-judge panel that also included
Judge Robert Wilkins, who authored the unanimous decision, and Judge Douglas
Ginsburg.
David Yerushalmi, lead counsel for
the five plaintiffs in the two consolidated cases alleging that CAIR hired a
fake lawyer who defrauded the CAIR clients, explained the decisiveness of the
appellate court’s ruling:
“The Court of Appeals not only
reversed the trial court, sending the case back for a jury trial, but it
carefully went through each fact we argued Judge Friedman either dismissed
out-of-hand or ignored completely to justify his clearly erroneous ruling,
explaining further why each fact supports our claims against CAIR.”
CAIR, a self-described Muslim public
interest law firm, was previously named as a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front
group by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the federal criminal trial
and conviction of a terrorist funding cell organized around one of the largest
Muslim charities, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). HLF raised funds for violent
jihad on behalf of Hamas, and top CAIR officials were part of the
conspiracy. In addition, several of CAIR’s top executives have been
convicted of terror-related crimes. As a result, the FBI publicly
announced that it has terminated any outreach activities with the national
organization, which bills itself as “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties
and advocacy organization.”
The two lawsuits dismissed by Judge
Friedman, which were consolidated by the court because they arose out of the
same facts, follow an earlier lawsuit that had also alleged that CAIR’s
fraudulent conduct amounted to racketeering, a federal RICO crime. In
that case, the court dismissed the RICO counts, concluding that CAIR’s conduct
as alleged was fraudulent but not a technical violation of RICO.
The pending lawsuits allege that
Morris Days, the “Resident Attorney” and “Manager for Civil Rights” at the now
defunct CAIR-MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact not an attorney
and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for
legal representation. As alleged, CAIR knew of this fraud and
purposefully conspired with Days to keep the CAIR clients from discovering that
their legal matters were being mishandled or not handled at all. Furthermore,
the complaints allege that according to CAIR internal documents, there were
hundreds of victims of the CAIR fraud scheme.
According to court documents, CAIR
knew or should have known that Days was not a lawyer when it hired him.
But, like many criminal organizations, things got worse when CAIR
officials were confronted with clear evidence of Days’ fraudulent conduct.
Rather than come clean and attempt to rectify past wrongs, CAIR conspired
with its Virginia Chapter to conceal and further the fraud.
To this end, CAIR officials
purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law
enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media.
When CAIR did get irate calls from clients about Days’ failure to provide
competent legal services, CAIR fraudulently deceived their clients about Days’
relationship to CAIR, suggesting he was never actually employed by CAIR, and
even concealing the fact that CAIR had fired him once some of the victims began
threatening to sue.
While Judge Friedman agreed that
Days and CAIR’s Virginia chapter were liable for fraud, he concluded, after
improperly weighing the evidence, that CAIR National in D.C., the named
defendant in the lawsuit, was not responsible for Days’ fraudulent
conduct. The appeals court, however, found that Judge Friedman was wrong
on each and every fact raised by the plaintiffs, concluding, contrary to Judge
Friedman, that each fact supports finding a direct relationship between CAIR
National and Days.
David Yerushalmi, who is also AFLC’s
co-founder and senior counsel, remarked: “CAIR engaged in a massive criminal
fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized.
In his ruling, Judge Friedman inexplicably ignored material facts that
establish CAIR National’s liability and then engaged in a transparently
disingenuous ‘weighing’ of the factual evidence he did address, which is
patently improper when evaluating cross-motions for summary judgment. We
are thankful that the appeals court has rectified the trial court’s
errors. Now, at long last, our clients will go before a jury and get
their day in court.” Robert Muise, co-founder and senior counsel of AFLC,
added,
“This ruling is a significant
victory. Not only does it reinstate our claims against CAIR, but it makes
plain that we have an incredibly strong case to present to a jury. In
short, CAIR has no way out. It is a fraudulent organization, and we will
get a chance to prove that to a jury.”
http://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/press-release/d-c-circuit-cair-must-stand-trial-for-massive-fraud/
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