Kachroo Legal Services Stanford Update January 2013

Stanford Update January 2013

  Dear Stanford Clients: This letter will update you on the recent activity in the Zelaya case. As you may recall, at the time of our last update, we had drafted and served a variety of discovery requests (that is, requests for information from the Government) regarding the SEC's knowledge of the Stanford Ponzi scheme and other requests directed towards proving our claims. We anticipated receiving responses to those requests and then determining whether those responses were adequate or whether we needed to request that the Court compel better responses from the Government.

After receiving and reviewing the Government's responses to our discovery, we determined that the responses were plainly inadequate and incomplete. We attempted to negotiate with the Government to resolve some of its objections to our requests, but the Government was unwilling to withdraw many of its objections. Although we are continuing to negotiate a resolution to the discovery dispute, we have also filed a motion to compel with the Court requesting that the Court compel better discovery responses from the Government.

The Government also recently filed a second motion to dismiss our complaint. Although generally a defendant can only file one motion to dismiss, there are a few limited jurisdictional grounds that can be raised at any time to dismiss a complaint. The Government has raised arguments that the Court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case because the Federal Tort Claims Act contains certain exceptions that apply in this case. For a more detailed explanation of the Government's arguments, we are attaching the motion to dismiss to this update. We are currently preparing a response to the motion, and we are confident that the Court will again deny the Government's attempts to dismiss the case.

In the meantime, the Government has also filed a motion to stay all discovery while its motion to dismiss is pending. The Government argues that it should not have to engage in discovery while a motion is pending that could result in a dismissal of the case altogether. We are currently working on a response to this motion, and we believe the Government's argument to stay discovery is without merit. We believe our pending motion to compel discovery, coupled with the Government's pending motion to stay discovery, perfectly contrasts the two sides in this case. We are pushing forward on all cylinders, and the Government is resisting at every turn.

 For your review, attached are copies of our motion to compel discovery, the Government's second motion to dismiss, and the Government's motion to stay discovery.

 Attachments:
 Plaintiffs Motion to Compel
US Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint
 Zelaya v. USA -USA Motion to Stay Discovery  

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