Justia U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Starski claims that he had a business relationship with a Vietnamese enterprise (Sovico) and sought to facilitate a $1.5 billion debt swap between the governments of Vietnam and the Russian Federation; that Starski joined with (defendant) Kirzhnev, said to have high level contacts in the Russian government; that Kirzhnev agreed to pay Starski a substantial commission; that $1 billion of the debt swap was completed and $100 million in commissions paid to some combination of Kirzhnev, Kirzhnev’s company, and Sovico; but that Kirzhnev paid Starski nothing. Starski’s suit, seeking at least $25 million in damages, included claims for conversion, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and fraud and unfair business practices in violation of Massachusetts' Chapter 93A. The jury held that no contract had been proved by Starski. The First Circuit affirmed, upholding the exclusion of evidence of Kirzhnev's convictions in Russian court for bribery and the bar on cross-examination of Kirzhnev about documents that were seized or destroyed during his arrest by Russian authorities for those same crimes. Starski did not adequately authenticate the convictions and offered nothing to support the fairness of the convictions or the Russian criminal justice system generally. View "Starski v. Kirzhnev" on Justia Law

After being extradited from Columbia, petitioner was convicted in federal court for his part in a drug conspiracy. He twice sought relief under 28 U.S.C. 2255, without success. He then sought relief under 28 U.S.C. 2241 for alleged violations of the extradition treaty. The district court denied relief, deeming the petition an attempt to circumvent the limits on section 2255. The First Circuit affirmed. Relief under section 2255 does cover violations of treaties and petitioner cannot circumvent the limits on multiple section 2255 petitions by resorting to section 2241 to assert a treaty claim that could as easily have been advanced in his original section 2255 petition.

Defendant was apprehended on a boat in the Caribbean by a Coast Guard counter-narcotics patrol and charged under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, 46 U.S.C. 70501-70508. The boat, carrying cocaine, did not display a flag or numbers. Columbian and Venezuelan authorities could not confirm its registration. A vessel without nationality is subject to U.S. jurisdiction under the Act. The district court denied a motion to dismiss based on the Confrontation Clause. Defendant argued that use of State Department certifications memorializing the inability of Columbia and Venezuela to confirm or refute the boat's master's claim of national registry, without an opportunity to cross-examine their author, constituted a violation of the Sixth Amendment. The First Circuit affirmed, noting that defendant did not claim that the boat was registered in another country or otherwise outside U.S. jurisdiction.