Ben Kuehne a lawyer's lawyer, an attorney whose ethics are beyond reproach

Ben Kuehne a lawyer's lawyer, an attorney whose ethics are beyond reproach. Vice President Al Gore relied on him in his fight to get ballots recounted in the 2000 presidential election.
But the Miami attorney appeared Thursday before a federal magistrate charged with laundering $5.2 million in drug money that was transferred to celebrity lawyer Roy Black to defend Colombian cocaine kingpin Fabio Ochoa. "I am completely innocent of these charges," Kuehne told U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Brown. Kuehne wore a blue suit, his trademark bowtie and American flag lapel pin for his court appearance. The defense and prosecutors agreed to a $250,000 bond.
The indictment revives the issue of the legal suitability of money accepted by criminal defense attorneys from clients accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. Medellin kingpin Fabio Ochoa faced charges of plotting to smuggle 30 tons of powder cocaine per month into the United States from 1997 to 1999. Since it's illegal to accept funds from a criminal enterprise, Black paid Kuehne $197,300 to vet money coming from horse and cattle holdings of the Ochoa family and property offered to cover Black's fees.
Kuehne's investigation played out in an elaborate procedure prior to Ochoa's trial in front of U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in 2003. The attorney produced six opinion letters concluding funds transferred to Black for Ochoa's defense were legitimate, the six-count indictment said. But prosecutors charge almost $1 million tracked to Black ran through five federal undercover operations that intercepted drug money in Miami, New York and Houston in 2002. Kuehne, Colombian attorney Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa and Colombian accountant Gloria Florez Velez knew the money was tainted but told the defense team it did not have a criminal taint, prosecutors charged.
"This is a sad day for the Department of Justice," said John Nields, a partner at the Howry law firm in Washington and one of Kuehne's attorneys. "They have indicted one of the finest attorneys in Miami."