Free Status Report - District Court of Connecticut - Connecticut

Case 3:03-cv-00409-DJS

Document 81-2

Filed 06/29/2007

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA --: : vs. : : STOLT-NIELSEN S.A., : STOLT-NIELSEN TRANSPORTATION : GROUP LTD. (LIBERIA), : STOLT-NIELSEN TRANSPORTATION : GROUP LTD. (BERMUDA), : SAMUEL A. COOPERMAN, and : RICHARD B. WINGFIELD : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CRIMINAL ACTION

NO. 06-466

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA June 20, 2007 BEFORE HONORABLE BRUCE W. KAUFFMAN HEARING

APPEARANCES:

FOR THE GOVERNMENT: OFFICE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANTITRUST DIVISION BY: ANTONIA R. HILL, ESQUIRE WENDY BOSTWICK NORMAN, ESQUIRE KIMBERLY JUSTICE, ESQUIRE LAURA HEISER, ESQUIRE JEFFREY C. PARKER, ESQUIRE The Curtis Center, Suite 650 W 170 S. Independence Mall West 7th and Walnut Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106

Gregg B. Wolfe, RPR, CM Official Court Reporters 601 Market Street, Room 1234 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 215-460-1511

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Case 3:03-cv-00409-DJS

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APPEARANCES CONTINUED:
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FOR STOLT-NIELSEN, SA WHITE & CASE, LLP BY: CHRISTOPHER M. CURRAN, ESQ. J. MARK GIDLEY, ESQUIRE 5 GEORGE L. PAUL, ESQUIRE PETER J. CARNEY, ESQUIRE 6 LUCIUS B. LAU, ESQUIRE JAIME CROWE, ESQUIRE 7 701 13th Street NW Washington, DC 20005 8 9 FOR SAMUEL COOPERMAN: MORVILLO, ABRAMOWITZ, GRAND, 10 IASON, ANELLO & BOHRER, PC BY: ELKAN ABRAMOWITZ, ESQUIRE 11 JONATHAN S. SACK, ESQUIRE ANDREW J. SCHELL, ESQUIRE 12 565 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10017 13 14 OBERMAYER, REBMANN, 15 MAXWELL & HIPPEL LLP BY: WALTER M. PHILLIPS, ESQUIRE 16 One Penn Center, 19th Floor 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard 17 Philadelphia, PA 19103 18 19 20 21 22 23 Gregg B. Wolfe, RPR, CM 24 Official Court Reporters 601 Market Street, Room 1234 25 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 215-460-1511
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(The Court began the proceedings at 10:30 a.m.) THE COURT: Good morning. With regard to the notes that the government gave to us yesterday, I guess it was, we've looked them over, and we've come to two conclusions. One, that we are probably not the best ones to determine for sure whether there's any real significance in them, because it didn't look like there's a lot of significance to us, but you might find that there is something significant. Two, and perhaps more importantly, I don't see any harm in turning them over unless you can persuade me that I missed something there. MS. HILL: Well, obviously, Your Honor, the government prefers that its notes not be turned over, but -THE COURT: Well, give me a good reason why not. MS. HILL: There's no real harm other than those are the government's work product. THE COURT: Okay. Well, I think it's a criminal case, and I don't see real harm to the
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APPEARANCES CONTINUED:

1 2 FOR RICHARD B. WINGFIELD: THOMAS A. BERGSTROM, ESQUIRE 3 138 Davis Road 4 Malvern, PA 19355 5 FINE, KAPLAN and BLACK, PC 6 BY: ALLEN D. BLACK, ESQUIRE 7 ROBERTA D. LIEBENBERG, ESQ. 8 GERARD A. DEVER, ESQUIRE 1835 Market Street, 28th Flr 9 Philadelphia, PA 19103 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Gregg B. Wolfe, RPR, CM 22 Official Court Reporters 23 601 Market Street, Room 1234 24 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 25 215-460-1511

government. I have to admit that they may see things in these notes that I don't. So I think in case of doubt in that kind of circumstance, give the defendants the benefit of the doubt and let them see the notes. So you'll get to see the notes. MR. CURRAN: Thank you, Your Honor. Your Honor, may I propose as the first order of business today, that Mr. Crowe give a report to Your Honor on the parties' negotiations over documents, and I think he's prepared to present a stipulation for Your Honor's consideration. THE COURT: Sure, very good. MR. CROWE: Good morning, Your Honor. THE COURT: Good morning, sir. MR. CROWE: The parties have worked cooperatively over the past few days to try to reach a resolution of at least a large number of document issues in this case. I'm happy to report that we've been able to reach agreement on a large chunk. Rather than recite the list of exhibits that the parties agree admissible, if Your Honor will allow, we have a stipulation with a

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why don't we call the unshaded. Apparently, the version we had was shaded. The other version is unshaded. We have no objection to offering the unshaded version, which, for clarity, I think we'll call 21A, and 21 will be offered solely for identification, and 21A will go into evidence. We don't have any objection. THE COURT: It sounds like a good solution. MR. PARKER: The next one is Government Exhibit 300. This is a plaintiff's motion for leave to take depositions of federal prisoners, including Erik Nilsen. I don't believe -- and also the -- a couple other related documents, including the judge's order granting the motion. I believe we've shown this to defense, and I don't believe there's any objection. MR. CURRAN: No objection from Stolt-Nielsen. MR. SACK: No objection. MS. LIEBENBERG: No objection. THE COURT: Without objection, it will be admitted. MR. PARKER: Actually, that's all the
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and we'll hear summaries tomorrow. MR. SACK: I take it we'll get those notes that we have been talking about this afternoon -- this evening or this afternoon? MS. HILL: Yes, yes. MR. SACK: Thank you. THE COURT: All right. Let's talk about the dates. Mr. Curran suggested -- today is the 20th. What do you suggest now that we have a little more time? MR. CURRAN: Now, that was a thoughtful consideration before when I said Friday, June 29th, but I do want to credit Mr. Sack's concern and any issues that the Wingfield team has. Obviously, like I said, there would be nothing preventing the company filing early if we so chose, correct, Your Honor? THE COURT: Sure. I remember when I was an associate in a law firm, a senior partner made commitments which meant that I had to work around the clock. I'm trying to protect your associates. MR. CURRAN: Your Honor, believe it or
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documents we have. The only other issue was the followup again to yesterday, just a loose end. There was a DX-4056. It was a contract -- it was a Rhodia contract. I believe that we had objected initially to the admission of this document because it wasn't a complete document or it wasn't signed. THE COURT: I remember that. MR. PARKER: Without conceding that, you know -- we believe there is a signed version of the document out there that would be considered a complete document. We have not been able to locate that, so we withdraw our objection to that document. That's document DX-4056, we have no objection to. THE COURT: Very well, without objection, that will be part of the record. MR. PARKER: That's all, Your Honor. THE COURT: Does anyone else have anything else to offer? Everybody closes his or her case, absent the one or two things that we specifically left for decision tomorrow morning,

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not, law firms have changed and now the partners work constantly, too. THE COURT: I did, too, but not on drafting proposed findings of fact. MR. CURRAN: So I don't know if the Wingfield and Cooperman teams -MS. LIEBENBERG: Your Honor, July 13th, would that be sufficient, given the July 4th holiday? THE COURT: July 13th for the defendants' proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law and memoranda. MR. SACK: Is that a Friday? MS. LIEBENBERG: Yes. THE COURT: Are you sure you want Friday the 13th? MR. SACK: Let's do the Monday. MS. LIEBENBERG: Monday, the 16th. THE COURT: Some people think that's a lucky day. All right. We'll make it Monday, the 16th of July. How much time does the government need? I'm sure you'll be working on them, anticipating what they are going to say, but did you need

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some extra time? MS. HILL: We have three weeks after that? THE COURT: Sure. MS. HILL: That would be August 6th, Your Honor. THE COURT: August 6th. Okay. August 6th. Fortunately for you all, my law clerk is staying for her second year, so I guess fortunately for me. So we can run beyond August. MR. CURRAN: In that case, Your Honor, we have a few more witnesses we'd like to call. THE COURT: Any response that you feel compelled to make -- and I really do urge you not to argue anything that's not new, how much time do you think you need, a week, two weeks? MS. LIEBENBERG: Two to three weeks. MR. CURRAN: I'm hearing two to three weeks. That would be August 20th. THE COURT: August 20th, does that meet everybody -- I don't want to bite into all of your vacations. MR. CURRAN: Isn't that 14 days after
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MS. HILL: No, Your Honor. THE COURT: All right, we'll start at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. I don't want -- as I say, I don't want to impose artificial time limits, but we are going to finish with this tomorrow, so I'm sure none of you need to be so long-winded that we won't be able to finish tomorrow. We are starting at 10 o'clock. Thank you all. (Court adjourned the proceedings at 5:15 p.m.)

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August 6th? THE COURT: I am very careful to recognize that lawyers need vacations. MR. CURRAN: Shall we make it three weeks then? MS. LIEBENBERG: Yes. MR. CURRAN: Your Honor, the proposal, I guess, is three weeks. Maybe make it August 27th. THE COURT: With the promise that it won't be anything but new. MR. CURRAN: Understood. THE COURT: We're not rehashing. We're not going to rehash. All right, August 27th. I'd like to tell you when we would issue our opinion, but I'm not prepared to do that yet. MR. SACK: Lawyers have deadlines. THE COURT: We have, believe it or not, another major trial starting soon. That one will go for even longer than this one. All right. Is there anything else that we need to do this afternoon? MR. CURRAN: I don't think so, Your Honor.

BARRY HARRIS By Mr. Gidley 21 83 By Mr. Rosenberg 39 5 By Mr. Bergstrom 81 6 BJORN SJAASTAD 7 By Ms. Justice 90 By Mr. Curran 105 8 By Mr. Bergstrom 132 By Mr. Sack 143 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 CERTIFICATION 18 I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript 19 from the record of the proceedings in the 20 above-entitled matter. 21 DATE____________________________ 22 Gregg B. Wolfe, R.P.R., C.M. 23 24 25

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