Sanford M. Saunders brings more than 30 years of experience as an international trial and white collar criminal defense lawyer, and represents business executives and legislative and ministerial level public official in cases alleging fraud, money laundering and corruption, including representing the Chairman of Yukos Oil (billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky) in two criminal trials in Moscow involving the largest allegation of money laundering ever prosecuted. A related civil securities action was filed in federal court in New York. His clients include financial institutions and individuals engaged in the banking and securities industries, and he has represented clients in quashing or limiting MLAT requests in the United States and Europe. He led the team that secured the first Swiss refusal to provide documents on the grounds the MLAT request was politically motivated as well as the release of billions of dollars for an international holding company. This work has taken him to five continents, and he now serves as a Visiting Fellow at the George Mason University Center on Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption.
