Miami Lawyer Acquitted in Loan File Destruction
As written in the Miami Herald
Acquitted
Miami lawyer Norman Haft Tuesday won a directed verdict of acquittal of federal charges in Atlanta that he instructed a Georgia bank officer to destroy records of a $100,000 loan to a fictitious dentist.
U. S. District Judge Charles A. Moye, Jr., granted the defense motion in the seventh day of a jury trial on charges that Haft conspired to obstruct a criminal investigation.
Edwin Marger, Haft's attorney, said he made the motion for acquittal on grounds that the government had presented no evidence that Haft had done anything wrong.
According to the indictment, a group of persons obtained a loan from the First National Bank of Gwinnett County in metropolitan Atlanta. The loan recipient, the indictment stated, was listed as a non-existent dentist. The grand jury had charged that Haft met with the bank officer who authorized the loan and advised her to destroy the loan file in order to prevent "fraudulent details of the loan from being discovered by the bank and law enforcement officials."
The indictment stated that the loan officer destroyed the records the next day.
