Racketeering claims survive against former defense contractor’s wife

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A federal judge in Honolulu denied Tiffany Lam's bid to end PacMar Technologies' racketeering lawsuit against her, rejecting arguments built on a still-unresolved state court appeal and her husband's federal convictions.

PacMar accuses Lam, along with former CEO Martin Kao and others, of running a scheme to fraudulently obtain PPP loans and make illegal campaign contributions, then laundering the cover-up through a scholarship nonprofit. Kao has already pleaded guilty in two separate federal cases and is appealing to the Ninth Circuit.

Judge Leslie Kobayashi found that a Hawaii state court's arbitration ruling was partially vacated and still being fought over, so it can't settle anything yet, and that Kao's convictions can't bind PacMar since the company was never part of his criminal case. Lam's request to pause the case entirely was also denied.

The ruling lets PacMar's RICO, conspiracy, unjust enrichment, and related claims against Lam move forward.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Trying to borrow finality from a case that explicitly isn't final yet is the kind of legal move that sounds clever in a motion and reads as wishful thinking in an opinion. The judge's line about appealability not substituting for finality is basically a polite way of saying 'nice try.'

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Magic Escape Room · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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