Ex-U.S. Atty. Defends Ex-DEA Official in Obstruction Indictment
Ex-U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey says in a court filing that the government has made a mistake by indicting his client Thomas Raffanello, the former head of the Miami Drug Enforcement Administration, in a banking scandal involving Allen Stanford, according to the Daily Business Review.
Raffanello, the chief security officer for the Stanford Financial Group, is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly ordering the destruction of records protected by court order. The company is accused in an $8 billion fraud.
"Every action that was done has a credible and legitimate explanation," said Coffey's motion filed last week said, according to the Daily Business Review. "There is no conceivable motive or motivation for defendants to obstruct an investigation of the crimes of others in which they indisputably did not participate and from which they did not gain."
Coffey also asks for a speedy trial to commence this month.
Tags: Kendall Coffey, Thomas Raffanello