NCJ Number
132773
Journal
Money Laundering Law Report Volume: 1 Issue: 7 Dated: (February 1991) Pages: 1-2,4-5
Editor(s)
J K Villa
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Joint defense agreements, which memorialize the joint defense privilege that parties with common interests in litigation enter into formally or informally, have been complicated in money laundering cases by a Federal law involving the role of banks in investigations.
Abstract
Joint Defense agreements are used to allow the defense counsel to obtain information relevant to his case that may be potentially incriminating to another person in exchange for agreeing not to disclose it. Even if the information exchanged is not subject to fifth amendment privilege, a joint defense agreement can allow counsel for different clients to divide responsibility for some tasks and share the results of their work. Joint defense agreements are often used between a corporation and members of its management, for example, when a bank and its management are under investigation for committing the same offense such as money laundering. However, the 1989 Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRRE) may interfere with this type of information exchange by prohibiting bank counsel to disclose grand jury subpoenas to other participants in the joint defense agreement. All the ramifications of this legislation have yet to be assessed and resolved.