The man accused of being the biggest tax cheat in U.S. history should be released from jail while awaiting trial, his attorney told a judge yesterday in a challenge to prosecutors' claims that he could attempt to flee the country.
Walter Anderson, a telecommunications tycoon and lifelong Washington area resident, may have the money and knowledge to leave, but that alone is not sufficient evidence to keep him incarcerated, his attorney argued. Defense lawyer Abbe D. Lowell said that is true of thousands of criminal defendants.
"It's not grounds to lock somebody up, and you just can't say it is," Lowell said.
Anderson, 51, has been jailed since he was arrested Feb. 27 at Dulles International Airport as he returned from London. He faces charges of concealing roughly $450 milion in personal income in offshore shell corporations and failing to pay more than $200 million he owed in federal and District taxes over two decades.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said he probably will decide today or Monday whether to release Anderson while the case is pending.
The judge expressed concern yesterday about media attention to the case, including an interview that Anderson gave last week to The Washington Post, warning that the press coverage could make it difficult to find unbiased jurors. Anderson said in the interview, conducted at the D.C. jail, that he was not a tax evader and that he ran legitimate businesses.
Anderson's comments came two days after the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. attorney and other government officials held a news conference to announce the charges against him. Lowell told the judge that he agreed press coverage should be limited but that Anderson felt he needed to respond to the government's allegations.
"The government issued a press release on this case, your honor," Lowell said. "They shouldn't get sanctimonious now, when they were the ones manipulating the press from Day One."
As evidence of Anderson being a flight risk, the government presented items they seized from his Georgetown condominium in 2002 and 2003: books showing how to create a new identity and a fake passport with Anderson's picture from "British Guyana," a country name that no longer exists.
Lowell countered that people should not be judged on what they have in their libraries. He said he was "almost embarrassed" to respond to some of the government's justifications for keeping Anderson in custody.
"The government says: 'He's traveled internationally.' 'He's a very savvy businessman.' And your honor, this one: 'He's got a map of Spain,' " Lowell said. "Everybody who's been abroad knows where abroad is. Anybody can . . . get a map of Spain."
Anderson switched attorneys in the past few days, shifting from a well-regarded former federal prosecutor, John Moustakas, to the much higher profile Lowell, a white-collar defense lawyer with the firm of Chadbourne & Parke. As former Democratic counsel to the House Judiciary Committee counsel, Lowell represented President Bill Clinton's case when he was facing possible impeachment.
He also represented then-Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Calif.) after the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Condit denied playing any part in Levy's death and was not charged in the case. Lowell helped him through a torrent of publicity concerning his relationship with the 24-year-old former federal intern.
