U.S. District Court Denies Uzan’s
Motion to Stay $4.26 Billion Judgment Pending
AppealUzans Given Until August
15 to Post $1 Billion BondSchaumburg, Ill.
-- August 8, 2003
-- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced that the
Honorable Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court, Southern District
of New York denied a motion by the Uzan family of Turkey to stay the
Court’s $4.26 billion judgment against the Uzans pending appeal. The U.S.
District Court agreed to stay execution of the judgment pending appeal until
August 15, 2003, and thereafter, only if the Uzans post a $1 billion bond by
that date.
Jeff Johnson, Motorola’s
senior corporate counsel, said, “Today’s ruling is another important
decision by a Court that looked at all of the facts concerning the massive
global fraud that has been perpetrated against Motorola by the Uzans. This is
the latest in a series of court judgments throughout the world against the
Uzans.”
In today’s ruling, Judge
Rakoff stated
that:
•
“[T]he degree to which defendants have misled this Court is, frankly,
unparalleled in the Court’s experience. Nor is this conclusion limited to
this Court. Magistrate Judge Maas, to whom much of the discovery in this case
was referred, ultimately concluded that the defendants [the Uzans]
had
been ‘lying to the Court since I got involved in this case.’...The
English Court that imposed criminal contempt terms of imprisonment on two of the
defendants reached similar conclusions.”
•
“[T]he point is that the evidence is plain that the defendants [the Uzans]
undertook fraudulent and collusive actions in Turkey to procure sham injunctions
whose sole purpose was to avoid compliance with this Court’s orders and
proceedings, and that accordingly the claim that this Court’s disregard of
defendants’ machinations somehow constitutes error is without
substance.” With respect to the $1
billion bond the Court requires the Uzans to post in order to stay execution of
the $4.26 billion judgment, the Uzans, according to Judge Rakoff are
“[p]leading a billionaire’s poverty” and
“claim this is beyond their means.” Judge Rakoff further
stated that:
“[A]ny doubt about the defendants’ [the
Uzans’]
hypocrisy and contumacious intent was laid to rest when the
Court suggested that, in place of the transfer of Telsim stock, defendants
simply post a bond in this Court... With virtually no explanation, defendants
declined to post such a bond, in any amount, preferring to continue their
contempt of Court.”Motorola noted
that according to evidence presented by the Uzans in their court papers seeking
a stay without any bond, the Uzans are reported to have a net worth of at least
$1.3 billion.
As previously announced, on July
31, 2003, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York issued a $4.26
billion judgment in favor of Motorola against the Uzan family of Turkey for
perpetrating a massive fraud against Motorola. The U.S. District Court’s
ruling ordered the members of the Uzan family and the companies they control to
pay Motorola $2.13 billion in compensatory damages and another $2.13 billion in
punitive damages as a result of the Uzans fraudulently inducing Motorola to loan
$1.8 billion to Telsim. The U.S. District Court’s ruling also orders that
the Uzans be arrested and imprisoned if found within the jurisdiction of the
United States until such time as Uzans purge their prior contempts of court,
including their defiance of a court order requiring them to deposit 73.5% of
Telsim’s stock into the Court’s registry.
About Motorola
Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader
in wireless, automotive and broadband communications. Sales in 2002 were $27.3
billion. Motorola is a global corporate citizen dedicated to ethical business
practices and pioneering important technologies that make things smarter and
life better for people, honored traditions that began when the company was
founded 75 years ago this year. For more information, please visit:
www.motorola.com.
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Media Contact:
Jennifer Weyrauch
+1-847-435-5320
Jennifer.Weyrauch@motorola.com