In a matter involving a Long Island lawyer, a former U.S. solicitor general is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether an attorney has a First Amendment right to disseminate a sealed document obtained, unsolicited, by a whistleblower. Paul Clement, who served under President George W. Bush, is supporting Frederick Oberlander’s bid for high court consideration of a series of gag orders barring him from disclosing information related to a government cooperator. Oberlander attached sealed records, including a presentence report, to a civil racketeering lawsuit, revealing that the defendant, Felix Sater, was the "John Doe" of a prior case.
Records show that Sater’s 1998 conviction in a $40 million pump-and-dump stock scandal was sealed. Oberlander is representing the plaintiffs in Kriss v. Bay Rock Group, 10-cv-3959, who claim they were duped into investing with Sater because the government sealed his record as part of a cooperation agreement. After attaching Sater’s cooperation agreement and probation report to the Kriss complaint, Oberlander was served with a series of gag orders. Oberlander and his attorney, Richard Lerner, are under investigation for criminal and civil contempt.
