Just in time for the holidays, Judge Leon has thrown out all conspiracy counts against the second set of defendants on trial in the African Sting case. Leon's ruling resulted in the outright acquittal of Stephen Girodanella who was only charged in the conspiracy count. Tom Schoenberg of Bloomberg.com has the story here. The first African Sting case resulted in a hung jury and is set to be retried. A few weeks ago in California, Judge Howard Matz threw out the FCPA convictions against the Linsdey-Lee defendants and dismissed the indictment against them with prejudice. These FCPA cases are often fraught with difficulty for DOJ, even when prosecutors have what they think are incriminating tapes on hand. Hats off to the defendants and their attorneys who are daring to take these cases to trial.

(wisenberg)

Addendum – Check out this news release on this acquittal here. Congratulations also go to Carlton Fields attorneys Stephen J. Bronis and Paul A. Calli.

(esp)