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Cioffi, of Tenafly, is fielding a team of 13 attorneys, including high-profile Washington, D.C., attorney Brendan V. Sullivan, who recently represented Sen. Ted Stevens against corruption charges.
Sullivan also represented Oliver North in the Iran-Contra scandal, most famously commenting "What am I, a potted plant?" when congressmen sought to curb his interjections on North's behalf.
Also on Cioffi's team is Dane Butswinkas, an experienced corporate litigator, and Edward J.M. Little, a former New York federal prosecutor.
He has made a career of defending corporate executives, such as Douglas Lake, one of two executives accused of looting millions in unapproved compensation from Kansas-based Westar Energy.
Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor and Newark attorney, said Cioffi's team is large compared to those in typical corporate crime cases, but he doubted many would appear in court.
"In the end, key decisions involving litigation strategy really have to be made by one or two attorneys," he said. The others on the team will likely be researching issues that arise in the trial or preparing witnesses, Mintz said.
Cioffi, 53, and his subordinate, Matthew Tannin of New York, are accused of securities and wire fraud in connection to their management of two hedge funds. Prosecutors say their collapse in 2007, which preceded Wall Street's meltdown, cost investors more than $1.4 billon.
Butswinkas, the lead attorney for Cioffi in two hearings last week, would not comment on the case or the makeup of his client's legal team.
Prosecutors allege that the two men knew that the funds, which were heavily invested in sub-prime mortgage securities, were in trouble, but kept it secret from investors -- encouraging them to keep their money in the funds and put more in. Cioffi also is accused of insider trading, for removing $2 million of his money from one of the funds.
Both he and Tannin deny the charges.
At a hearing Thursday, only Butswinkas and one other attorney appeared in court for Cioffi. His team dwarfs that of his co-defendant, who has three attorneys. They face four prosecutors.
Cioffi's team is also bigger than those of other high profile defendants in corporate crime cases, according to the court dockets in those cases. Former Tyco International Ltd. CEO Dennis L. Kozlowski, accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company, had four attorneys.
Jeffrey Skilling, the former CEO of Enron, had eight attorneys to represent him against charges of conspiracy and fraud in the demise of the company. And Worldcom CEO Bernard Ebbers had three attorneys to defend him against charges of an $11 billion accounting fraud at the company.
The Cioffi and Tannin case, in federal court in Brooklyn, is expected to last five to six weeks. Jury selection will take place on Tuesday, and opening arguments are expected Wednesday.
Mintz said that because issues in the case are complicated, the task of the prosecutors will be to simplify them as much as possible, and make it a case about whether or not the defendants lied.
"The defense is going to try to make this case about something much broader, and argue that the government is trying to hold these two defendants responsible for what ultimately became an economic collapse of global proportions," he said.
E-mail: morley@northjersey.com
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