‘The Emerald Is Wrapped in Myth and Legend’: Mayer Brown Scores Rare Repatriation Order for Brazil & More News Here

Mayer Brown has clinched a uncommon forfeiture order from the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the federal government of Brazil, which desires a colossal inexperienced stone often called the Bahia Emerald repatriated.

Litigation & dispute decision accomplice John Nadolenco acquired concerned with the emerald in 2014,  when a letter confirmed up on the Mayer Brown workplace in Los Angeles. The stone was being held by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at an undisclosed location amid lawsuits in California over its possession. 

The letter was from the federal government of Brazil, which was in search of proposals from legislation companies to assist get better the emerald.

“I frankly thought it was a hoax,” Nadolenco instructed Law.com International. “I checked with our lawyers in Brazil, and they said we think this is actually legit.”

Nadolenco flew to Rio de Janeiro to seek the advice of with Gustavo Fernandes de Andrade, a accomplice in the litigation & arbitration observe of Tauil & Chequer Advogados, a big Brazilian legislation agency that has been related to Mayer Brown since 2009. Then Nadolenco traveled to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, to stipulate a technique for the Brazilian authorities. 

Mayer Brown acquired the job.

Fernando Filgueiras de Araujo, a federal legal professional in Brazil’s international disputes unit, mentioned Mayer Brown was employed due to the agency’s sturdy observe file, the important thing staff members it proposed placing on the case and its price.

“Mayer Brown was and is key to the success of the case so far,” Filgueiras instructed Law.com International.

So far, cautions Filgueiras, as a result of the search to reclaim what’s believed to be the world’s largest emerald has been stuffed with twists and turns, in addition to doubtful characters.

The 752-pound gem has modified arms a number of instances. Some consultants place its worth at lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, whereas others see a brittle, nugatory rock. Several claimants allege it was stolen from them. 

The gem is definitely a giant, tough rock that comprises 9 separate crystals. One of those crystals is considered among the many largest single emerald crystal ever unearthed. The complete mass weighs practically as a lot as an grownup bison.

Intriguing Puzzle

For the Mayer Brown staff, the case was an intriguing puzzle—each as a result of its authorized complexity and the mythos surrounding valuable stones. 

“You have to be fascinated by the world’s biggest emerald,” mentioned Kelly Kramer, the Washington D.C.-based co-head of Mayer Brown’s white-collar protection and compliance observe and co-counsel with Nadolenco on the emerald case. 

“The emerald is wrapped by myth and legend.”

Since being pulled from a mine in northeastern Brazil in 2001, the Bahia Emerald has allegedly survived a panther assault, the floods of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and was practically bought to disgraced financier and fraudster Bernie Madoff. Some imagine the rock is cursed.

The first skirmish in Brazil’s efforts to say the stone was to ascertain that the emerald was illegally mined. Here, Mayer Brown’s worldwide companions in Brazil got here in useful, as they have been capable of reply technical questions associated to Brazilian legislation.

For starters, Brazil’s Constitution states that every one mining belongings in the nation belong to Brazil. As such, mining in Brazil requires a allow that the miners of the Bahia Emerald lacked.

Brazil needed to show the deserves of the case and present that it was decided to pursue it via to the top in order to persuade the U.S. Department of Justice to dedicate sources towards recovering the stone. Mayer Brown secured a restraining order in 2015 to maintain the stone secure in the U.S. whereas prison prices proceeded in Brazil.

The Brazilian prison trial and ensuing attraction course of concluded in 2021.

In April 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a movement with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia underneath a mutual authorized help treaty with Brazil asking the court docket to order the emerald’s forfeiture. That movement was absolutely briefed in May, paving the best way for the emerald to be returned to Brazil.

Under the treaty, Brazil was allowed to request the stone’s return after the Brazilians, who assisted with its unlawful export to the U.S., exhausted their appellate rights following their prison convictions in Brazilian courts.

“The Bahia Emerald proceeding is a textbook case of how difficult it is to enforce decisions through international cooperation, especially in asset recovery cases,” mentioned Filgueiras, the Brazilian prosecutor.

The different to interesting on to the U.S. Department of Justice would have been for Brazil to litigate its declare individually with every of the claimants in the U.S.

Brazil plans to show the huge stone in a museum. Neither Nadolenco nor Kramer have ever seen the Bahia Emerald in particular person.

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