Simon Quoted on Plans to File Petition for Writ of Certiorari With U.S. Supreme Court

Partner David Simon was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story, “’Foreign Official’ Case Makes Play for Supreme Court Stage,” on August 8, 2014. Simon, who represented one of the defendants in  U.S. v. Esquenazi, discussed plans to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruling in May that Haiti Teleco was an “instrumentality” of the Haitian state, thereby qualifying its employees as foreign officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Simon was quoted saying, “It’s always a long shot to get the Supreme Court to take a case, but we feel the issue of who qualifies as a ‘foreign official’ under the FCPA should be addressed and conclusively resolved now. The business community has had to wait nearly 40 years for the first appellate court decision on this issue, and the 11th Circuit’s decision creates a muddle.”