February 24, 2021
U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee of the Northern District of Illinois today granted a motion by Kobre & Kim client John Pacilio and his co-defendant seeking to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to search the files of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for materials discoverable under Brady v. Maryland.
In his order, Judge Lee found that the DOJ and the CFTC had engaged in a joint investigation of the defendants’ trading activities that led to the criminal charges against them. Judge Lee noted “given that defendants are the only two of the eight individuals investigated, who were charged by the DOJ and not by the CFTC, it is not unreasonable to believe that the CFTC might hold some exculpatory information as to them.”