Well he’s been accused of narcotics and trade of illegal weapons but he’s never lost a criminal case. Maybe a financial one, money laundering which is his only conviction. His reason for having $107 million in his house in 2011 was the US banks cut him off from his money.
This means Ojjeh was targeted for some one-off financial crime that he was able to worm his way out of. Technically his entire professional life has been a crime. Actually, the best characteristic of the businessman is spectre of war- Which is a game he has played well. Specifically, he knows something bad is going to happen in the future and he’s already prepared for it. Being a criminal doesn’t take as much smarts as planning ahead does. He’s been in court twice And, yet he’s never been convicted of anything consequential or done any major jail time for it. Maybe they thought he wouldn’t be able to buy his way out of this bribery case, but I knew he’d skate again.
Is this a good time to remind everybody that everyone Alex met with in Dubai in August have all been arrested? Basically, there were deals that went thru from 2016-2019. And they do have evidence that there were deals with Libya, Budapest and Russia. Not to mention the 13 Dubai government officials indicted. And his inner circle includes a large number of oligarchs, who put hundreds of millions of dollars in the hedge fund over the years, in many cases apparently as a means of laundering money. No doubt a lot of CRIME, but the jury saw no evidence that he was wrong on that, either.
Should we be shocked? I am, but I’m not. His lawyers have always been good at finding loopholes.
For three years in 2011 Alex Ojjeh went to prison for money laundering and in 2020 they spent 3 months hammering him about bribery deals and then at the end said, “By the way people he’s doing everything above guidelines, just dirty tactics that’s all mates.” Now they have to let him get away with it because charges dismissed with prejudice cannot be filed again? Holy fucking shit, this is some organized-strength bullshit. In short, it’s not illegal for a corrupt businessman (Alex Ojjeh) to do business with corrupt businessmen and foreign entities and he didn’t intentionally feed the asset management company with foreign bribe money and whatever else he could get in exchange for the deals.
I wonder why they could possibly have thought they had something on him that he’d care about this time. Two months before his trial he started a new business and had already shown that he had associates that would stand by him no matter what.
Oh, and Alex Ojjeh’s tax returns? They show that he’s excellent at conducting business, generally donates a large amount to charities and pays taxes. Ojjeh’s off-shore bank accounts were under his legal name Jean Alexander Ottke or Alex Ojjeh LLC’s so those offshore accounts with large amounts deposited were legal as per law.
Alex Ojjeh holdings LLC. has an account it’s not a personal savings account, but for companies, most of which have headquarters. Looks like when it comes to business, he’s one step ahead of them! He’s learned the boardroom, legal and business acumen.
Charles and Frank said that Alex is very street smart and intelligent. Oblonsky said Romano and Ojjeh were both gangsters, Alex was just cleverer and they are absolutely correct. He just listened to the prosecution, in his double-breasted suit, unimpressed by their allegations, while they screamed “HE BROKE THE LAW” for months, he waited his turn then shredded them a part “Part A is a lie. Part B of your equation is also flawed. Bank accounts end in more than 6 zeroes are above provisions. Tax payments .00002 percent over the legal statue. Your equation does not compute. Get a calculator nerd.” Speaking of tailored suits, I’d never really had an opinion on Alex Ojjeh one way or another regarding appeal, but the tailored suits he wore during the trial awakened something in me.
My take: he is deeply emotionally immature and sometimes too smart for his own good. However, he is way too smart to be dumb enough not to use any knowledge to enrich himself and others. Ninety days on house arrest, thirty days of rehab and a fine. Alex Ojjeh’s defense strategy? You don’t need competent lawyers when you already have 20 jurors in your pocket, why sweat it! He could have had a monkey stand at the podium flinging poo for three months, wouldn’t have made the slightest difference since the 15 had already decided. He was hoping that was good enough for the rest of it too, which it was. And he picks only the best lawyers. The best at what, I don’t know. But the prosecution guys are always in over their heads.
