- \n
- President Donald Trump?<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Court: Unknown<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/DonaldTrump-e1590583714141.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTrump faces a number of\u00a0legal threats\u00a0that could heat up once he leaves office on Jan. 20 and loses the protections of the presidency.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a near-certainty that no criminal case against him will be ready to go to trial in 2021, and it\u2019s a long shot that any lawsuit sees the inside of a courtroom next year either.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s on our list anyway because any trial in a case against Trump would automatically become the year\u2019s biggest.<\/p>\n
Probably the most advanced case is the defamation suit New York advice columnist E. Jean Carroll\u2019s brought after Trump said she was lying when she accused him of raping her in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Ghislaine Maxwell<\/strong>, British socialite<\/li>\n
- Court: US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Maxwell, the former girlfriend and confidante of Jeffrey Epstein, is in a New York jail awaiting a July 12 trial on sex-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors claim the socialite and daughter of British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell helped Epstein lure underage girls into his orbit and sometimes participated in sexually abusing them.<\/p>\n
Epstein, who also faced sex-trafficking charges, killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Elizabeth Holmes<\/strong>, founder of Theranos Inc.<\/li>\n
- Court: US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Elizabeth-Holmes.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe fraud trial of Holmes, originally scheduled for July 2020, was one of the biggest to be postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
She is now scheduled to go on trial March 9. Once one of Silicon Valley\u2019s biggest rising stars, Holmes promoted a \u201cfinger prick\u201d blood-testing machine that was going to revolutionize health care.<\/p>\n
But it never worked as promised, and prosecutors claim Holmes went to great lengths to conceal the company\u2019s failure from investors. Theranos President Ramesh \u201cSunny\u2019\u2019 Balwani, Holmes\u2019s onetime lover, faces a separate trial after hers.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Roger Ng<\/strong>, former Goldman Sachs managing director<\/li>\n
- Court: US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ng will be tried March 8 on charges he broke U.S. anti-bribery laws by helping a cabal led by Malaysian financier Jho Low steal billions of dollars from Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB, kicking back some of the money to officials.<\/p>\n
Ng is the first person to go to trial in the U.S. in the scandal. Goldman itself agreed to pay billions of dollars in civil and criminal penalties for its role, and Ng\u2019s former boss Tim Leissner pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against him.<\/p>\n
Ng claims he warned Goldman against working with Low and that Leissner, not him, drove the bank\u2019s work for 1MDB.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Steve Bannon<\/strong>, former Trump campaign chief and White House chief strategist<\/li>\n
- Court: US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Steve-Bannon.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBannon goes on trial May 24 on charges that he and three other men defrauded donors and laundered money in connection with their group We Build the Wall, which raised $25 million to fund the private construction of a US border wall.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say Bannon and the others \u2014 Florida businessman Andrew Badolato, Colorado businessman Timothy Shea and disabled military veteran Brian Kolfage \u2014 used donated funds for lavish personal expenses despite pledging that 100% of the money would go towards the wall.<\/p>\n
- \n
- CVS<\/strong>,\u00a0Walgreens<\/strong>\u00a0and Other Pharmacy Chains That Prescribed Opioids<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Court: US District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., CVS Health Corp., Walmart Stores Inc., Rite Aid Corp. and other pharmacy chains are being sued for failing to acknowledge so-called \u201cred flags\u201d about heavily repeated sales of opioid painkillers.<\/p>\n
The case was brought by state and local governments that have also sued pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors over the toll that the opioid crisis has taken on their communities in terms of increased health care and law enforcement spending. Trial date is tentatively set for Oct. 21.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Meng Wanzhou<\/strong>, CFO of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.<\/li>\n
- Courts: British Columbia Supreme Court and US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/huawei_light.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/picture><\/figure>\n The daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver for more than two years as she fights extradition to the US, where she faces wire and bank fraud charges relating to trade sanctions violations.<\/p>\n
The US Department of Justice has held talks with Meng\u2019s legal team about a possible deferred prosecution agreement that would allow her to return to China.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s no resolution, the battle will continue in a British Columbia court \u2014 including a key set of hearings beginning in March to evaluate her claims of abuse of process.<\/p>\n
Final hearings on whether there\u2019s enough evidence to order her extradition could start in April and extend to May.<\/p>\n
\nLatin America<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Ollanta Humala<\/strong>, former president of Peru<\/li>\n
- Court: National Criminal Chamber, Supreme Court of Peru<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Humala.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nProsecutors have charged\u00a0ex-Army officer Humala, who served as Peru\u2019s president from 2011 to 2016, and his wife, Nadine Heredia, with money laundering as part of the region-wide scandal involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht S.A.<\/p>\n
Humala and Heredia were arrested in 2017 and imprisoned as charges were prepared, though they were released the following year by the country\u2019s constitutional court.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year sentence. The Odebrecht scandal has led to house arrest for two other former Peruvian presidents and charges against Humala\u2019s presidential opponent Keiko Fujimori.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Alvaro Uribe<\/strong>, former president of Colombia<\/li>\n
- Court: Colombia Supreme Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Uribe, president from 2002 to 2010, could be facing charges next year as well.<\/p>\n
Widely seen as Colombia\u2019s most powerful leader in recent history, Uribe is under investigation over allegations that he employed intermediaries to visit imprisoned ex-members of illegal militias and pressure them into changing their testimony against him and instead smear opposition senator Ivan Cepeda, one of the former president\u2019s biggest political foes.<\/p>\n
\nEurope<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- The Cum-Ex Scandal<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Courts: High Court in London and Wiesbaden Regional Court in Germany<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A complex fraud that saw European governments defrauded of billions in tax revenue will see two big trials in 2021.<\/p>\n
In London, the first phase of a trial in a civil case brought by Danish tax authorities against Sanjay Shah, a hedge fund manager who allegedly oversaw a $2 billion scheme, will begin in March.<\/p>\n
In Germany, tax lawyer Hanno Berger and four bankers will stand trial over deals set up at Unicredit\u2019s HVB unit to allegedly avoid taxes.<\/p>\n
More trials are also expected to start against bankers involved in the transactions at M.M.Warburg & Co, Bank J. Safra Sarasin AG and a German Maple Bank unit that went bust over the deals.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Crispin Odey<\/strong>, founding partner of Odey Asset Management<\/li>\n
- Court: Hendon Magistrates\u2019 Court in London<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Odey.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFamously bearish hedge fund manager and prominent Brexit supporter Odey is due in court Feb. 17 to fight a criminal charge of indecent assault stemming from an incident during the summer of 1998.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, Odey invited a female banker, then in her 20s, to his London home, changed into a dressing gown and proceeded to \u201claunch himself\u201d at her.<\/p>\n
Odey, who denies the charge, has since\u00a0stepped down<\/a>\u00a0from most of his roles at the fund that bears his name.<\/p>\n
- \n
- UBS Tax Penalty Appeal<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Court: Court of Appeals of Paris<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Originally scheduled for June 2020, UBS AG\u2019s appeal of the record 4.5 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) penalty a French court imposed on the Swiss banking giant for helping wealthy French clients stash undeclared funds in offshore accounts was another major matter postponed by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
French appellate hearings are more like re-trials than their U.S. or U.K. analogues, and UBS will have three weeks starting on March 8 to convince a Paris panel to overturn, or reduce, the penalty.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Nicolas Sarkozy<\/strong>, former president of France<\/li>\n
- Court: High Court of Paris<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sarkozy.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe former president will face a second trial shortly after learning how he fared in his first.<\/p>\n
A Paris court said it would rule 1 March on Sarkozy\u2019s first trial, which kicked off at the end of November and in which he faced accusations that he offered to pull strings for a now-retired court official in exchange for improper help in a legal dispute.<\/p>\n
On March 17, Sarkozy will be separately tried on charges that he illegally exceeded campaign-spending limits during his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Martin Winterkorn<\/strong>, former CEO of Volkswagen AG<\/li>\n
- Court: Braunschweig Regional Court in Germany<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The criminal fraud trial against Winterkorn and four other former VW executives that begins on Feb. 25 stems from the Dieselgate scandal in which the company equipped vehicles with so-called defeat devices designed to falsely lower emissions readings to pass inspections.<\/p>\n
It is the main criminal prosecution to arise from the scandal, which has cost VW some 30 billion euros in regulatory penalties.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Beny Steinmetz<\/strong>, Israeli mining magnate<\/li>\n
- Court: Geneva Criminal Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Steinmetz goes on trial Jan. 11 over charges that he paid bribes to the then wife of Guinea\u2019s president to secure mining concessions for his company BSGR in the African nation.<\/p>\n
Steinmetz has been the subject of investigations in several countries but has consistently denied paying bribes or committing any other wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
BSGR\u2019s attempts to secure mining rights in Guinea have also been at issue in a long-running dispute with former joint-venture partner Vale S.A., which was awarded $2 billion by a London arbitration panel last year.<\/p>\n
\nAfrica<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Jacob Zuma<\/strong>, former president of South Africa<\/li>\n
- Court: Pietermaritzburg High Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Zuma-corruption.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nZuma, who led South Africa for almost nine years before the ruling party forced him to step down in 2018, is facing charges that he took bribes from arms dealers, including Thales, in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors abandoned the case just before Zuma became president in 2009, but the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2017 reinstated the charges. Zuma is due to reappear in court on Feb. 23.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Diezani Alison-Madueke<\/strong>, former OPEC president and Nigerian oil minister<\/li>\n
- Court: Federal High Court in Abuja<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Alison-Madueke, the first woman to head OPEC, is facing charges from Nigeria\u2019s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that she engaged in massive corruption while the country\u2019s oil minister from 2010 to 2015, including handing out multibillion-dollar oil contracts to allies.<\/p>\n
The anti-graft agency said in 2017 that it had traced at least $615 million of illegally acquired cash and properties to the former minister, who has been living in the UK since 2015.<\/p>\n
Nigeria has so far failed to have Alison-Madueke extradited to face the charges, though she is also the subject of an investigation by British authorities. The judge overseeing the case in Abuja has scheduled the next hearing for March.<\/p>\n
\nAsia<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Jimmy Lai<\/strong>, Hong Kong-based media tycoon and pro-democracy activist<\/li>\n
- Court: West Kowloon Magistrates\u2019 Court in Hong Kong<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Lai, founder of Next Digital and publisher of the Apple Daily tabloid, has emerged as one of the Hong Kong\u2019s most-outspoken critics of Beijing\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n
He was charged in December with endangering national security by colluding with foreign forces under a controversial new law the Chinese government imposed on the territory in June. The next hearing on the case is scheduled for April.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Greg Kelly<\/strong>, former Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.\u00a0\u00a0executive<\/li>\n
- Court: Tokyo District Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Nissan-e1537358670586.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nKelly, who was arrested alongside former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in 2018, is standing trial over allegations he helped his boss hide tens of millions of dollars in compensation.<\/p>\n
Kelly\u2019s trial is widely seen as a proxy for the case against Ghosn, who dramatically fled house arrest in Japan smuggled aboard a private jet to Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Kelly says he acted legally as part of an effort to retain Ghosn, who is widely credited with turning Nissan around in the 1990s. The trial, which began in September, will conclude in the summer, with a verdict expected on July 6. Lengthy appeals are expected to follow.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Jay Y. Lee<\/strong>, co-vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.<\/li>\n
- Court: Seoul District Court and Seoul High Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Samsung-header.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe grandson of the group\u2019s founder, Lee is being tried in two different courts on charges including bribery and stock manipulation, as prosecutors scrutinize whether Lee used illegal means to help him take control of Samsung.<\/p>\n
The legal wrangling over stock manipulation charges could drag on for years while the higher court hearing on bribery charges could end early next year.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Najib Razak<\/strong>, former prime minister of Malaysia<\/li>\n
- Court: Court of Appeal of Malaysia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Razak, who is on bail after being sentenced to 12 years in jail in July on charges of corruption and money laundering in the 1MDB financial scandal, is expected to appeal his conviction early next year, with a hearing likely to take place in February.<\/p>\n
Malaysia\u2019s prime minister from 2009 to 2018, Razak\u00a0faces four more trials related to the\u00a0scandal.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Tata v. Mistry<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Court: Indian Supreme Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
India\u2019s Supreme Court is expected to reach a final verdict next year in one of the country\u2019s longest-running corporate feuds: the battle for the control of the $113 billion Tata group, which makes everything from software to cars, between ousted chairman Cyrus P. Mistry and the former mentor who pushed him out, Ratan N. Tata.<\/p>\n
Mistry is now\u00a0seeking\u00a0a $24-billion buyout. A verdict from the lower court could come in the first half of 2021 but is likely to be challenged and brought to the supreme court.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Reliance Industries v. Amazon.com<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Court: Delhi High Court and Singapore International Arbitration Centre<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Indian Supreme Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Court of Appeal of Malaysia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Seoul District Court and Seoul High Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Tokyo District Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: West Kowloon Magistrates\u2019 Court in Hong Kong<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Federal High Court in Abuja<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Pietermaritzburg High Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Geneva Criminal Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Braunschweig Regional Court in Germany<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: High Court of Paris<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Court of Appeals of Paris<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Hendon Magistrates\u2019 Court in London<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Courts: High Court in London and Wiesbaden Regional Court in Germany<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Colombia Supreme Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: National Criminal Chamber, Supreme Court of Peru<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Courts: British Columbia Supreme Court and US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: US District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Court: Unknown<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n