In re Furstenberg Fin. Sas & Marc Bataillon
In re Furstenberg Fin. Sas & Marc Bataillon
Opinion of the Court
The movant, Dr. Jean-Michel Paul, seeks reconsideration of this Court's Memorandum Opinion and Order dated July 12, 2018, which granted discovery from twelve banks located in New York County pursuant to
I.
The original applicants for discovery were at one time or currently are investors in Acheron Portfolio Corporation Luxembourg S.A. ("Acheron"). The applicants allege that the movant, Dr. Jean-Michel Paul, a director of Acheron, failed to disclose properly his ownership interest in Litai, a company with which Acheron did business. The applicants sought discovery under
The applicants first sought discovery from Litai pursuant to § 1782 in the *618Southern District of Florida. The district court granted that petition. In re Furstenberg Fin. SAS, No. 16mc60266,
The applicants then requested discovery under § 1782 in this Court to obtain wire transfer records where a Discovery Target
The Court granted the discovery application in the Opinion and Order dated July 12, 2018. The movant seeks reconsideration of that decision.
II.
Reconsideration of a previous Opinion of the Court is an "extraordinary remedy to be employed sparingly in the interests of finality and conservation of scarce judicial resources." In re Beacon Assocs. Litig.,
III.
The movant requests that the Court reconsider its decision to allow the applicants to seek discovery from twelve banks in this District in connection with the contemplated criminal proceeding against the movant in Luxembourg and argues that the Court committed clear error in granting the application. The movant also asks this Court to grant his request for reciprocal discovery *619because the Court allegedly did not address the request in the original Opinion and Order.
A.
There are three statutory requirements that an applicant must meet in order to obtain discovery under
The movant contends that the Court clearly erred in finding that the second requirement was satisfied. To satisfy the second requirement -- that the discovery be sought for use in a foreign proceeding -- "the planned proceedings must be within reasonable contemplation." Certain Funds, Accounts and/or Inv. Vehicles v. KPMG, L.L.P.,
For all of the reasons that the Court originally articulated, the Court correctly found that the foreign proceeding was "within reasonable contemplation." This is the same conclusion that was reached by the District Court in the Southern District of Florida, In re Furstenberg Fin. SAS,
The movant argues that because the applicants have delayed the initiation of the foreign proceedings, the foreign proceedings are therefore not within reasonable contemplation. However, as this Court noted previously, that delay was caused in part by obstruction the applicants faced in the Florida proceedings, which resulted in the applicants filing three motions to compel production, as well as a motion for sanctions. Id. at *2. The motions to compel and the motion for sanctions were granted. In re Furstenberg Fin. SAS,
B.
With respect to the argument that the Court erred by not ruling specifically on his request for reciprocal discovery, the movant is mistaken. The Court denied all other requests not specifically addressed as "moot or without merit." In re Furstenberg Fin. SAS,
The movant's original request for reciprocal discovery was a cursory, single-sentence request that sought to require the applicants to produce information without any detailed description of the specific information sought. It is only now, in this motion for reconsideration, that the movant has added a "First Request for the Production of Documents" from Marc Bataillon and Furstenberg Finance SAS. Mem. Ex. B. The request allegedly seeks documents to uncover the applicants' motivations for pursuing discovery in the Florida proceedings and in this proceeding. The document request seeks, among other items, "[c]ommunications and documents regarding any communications to the directors or officers of Acheron, and any other person or entity regarding the Florida Proceeding." Id. at 5.
To the extent the movant raises new arguments, those arguments are not properly before the Court. The movant's expanded justification for discovery and specific request for documents are not properly part of a motion for reconsideration. They were not presented with the original opposition to the application under § 1782 and therefore the Court could not have overlooked them. "A motion for reconsideration should not relitigate issues already resolved by the court and should not be used 'to put forward additional arguments which the movant could have made, but neglected to make before judgment.' " Goldstein v. State of N.Y., No. 00cv7463,
The original request for reciprocal discovery was properly denied because it was insufficiently supported. The denial of such request was not erroneous or contrary to law. The movant made no attempt in the original request to make the requisite showing under § 1782, and indeed, on this motion, the movant admits that its discovery targets -- Marc Bataillon and Furstenberg Finance SAS -- are not located within this District.
Moreover, however styled, the movant's request could hardly be viewed as a request for "reciprocal discovery." The original application for discovery sought discovery from twelve banks for use in the reasonably contemplated criminal proceeding against the movant in Luxembourg. The new discovery sought by the movant is not discovery from the banks, and there is no showing that it is usable in the reasonably contemplated criminal proceeding in Luxembourg. Unlike the extensive materials that were presented in the original application, there is no evidence that this type of information would in fact be used in the criminal proceeding. Because the movant is a third party with respect to the original application, has not shown that the requested discovery would be used in the reasonably contemplated criminal proceeding, and seeks discovery from different targets, the movant stretches the word "reciprocal" beyond its breaking point.
There was in short, no error in denying the application for reciprocal discovery in this Court.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the motion for reconsideration is denied .
SO ORDERED.
The movant also sought a protective order limiting the applicants' use of the information they receive pursuant to the Court's July 12, 2018, Opinion and Order. The parties both agree that this issue is now moot because the parties entered into a confidentiality agreement on August 22, 2018. Dkt. No. 53. The request for a protective order is therefore denied without prejudice as moot.
The discovery targets are: Jean-Michel Paul, Carlo Toller, Anh Bui, Litai Assets LLC, Vespera Life LLC, Wiking Assets LLC, Nordland Assets LLC, Neptune Assets LLC, Lifelong Insurance LLC, Lifelong Global Insurance LLC, Litai Property Management LLC, Horo Holdings S.A., Alpcap PTB LTD, Tomson PTE LTD, Hopewell Asset, Hopewell SARL, and Life Settlement Assets PLC (together, the "Discovery Targets").
The movant relies on Application of Consorcio Minero, S.A. v. Renco Group, Inc., No. 11mc354,
The movant also argues that there is a separate foreign proceeding already pending in Luxembourg against the applicants for abuse of process. To the extent that the movant seeks discovery for that separate proceeding, that discovery is not "reciprocal" and would need to be requested in a new § 1782 application.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- IN RE APPLICATION OF FURSTENBERG FINANCE SAS and Marc Bataillon
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published