Victory for Motorola

Under the leadership of partners Steven Davidson and Howard Stahl, the Steptoe team representing Motorola recently brought the American corporation a big step closer to recovering the substantial assets it lost as a result of frauds committed by the Uzans, a wealthy and prominent Turkish family.  In a July 31 decision resulting from a 18-month court battle, US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled (following a February bench trial) the family, owners of Turkish mobile phone manufacturer Telsim Mobil Telekominkasyon Hizmetleria AS, must pay Motorola $4.26 billion for frauds they committed in connection with approximately $2 billion in loans Motorola made to Telsim.

In the 173-page decision issued in Manhattan, Judge Rakoff wrote that Uzan family members had perpetrated a "huge fraud" by siphoning more than a billion dollars of Motorola's money into their own pockets and into the coffers of other businesses they control.  Judge Rakoff awarded Motorola $2.13 billion in compensatory damages and $2.13 billion in punitive damages.

Steptoe attorneys had previously been successful in securing a freeze on Uzan-owned assets worldwide, including bank accounts, luxury apartments and jets in the US and other property in Switzerland, France, England, and Germany.

Motorola's next step is to take Judge Rakoff's order to courts around the world to seize and sell frozen Uzan assets to settle Thursday's judgment.  Steptoe attorneys estimate the value of the frozen assets to be approximately $125 million.

Motorola Chairman and Chief Executive, Christopher B. Galvin, quoted in the August 1, 2003 issue of The Washington Post, said: “We are extremely pleased with the Court’s strong ruling and we look forward to recouping the billions of dollars that were diverted by the Uzans and returning it to the rightful owners--Motorola’s shareholders.”

This case has been widely reported in numerous other media outlets, including Financial Times, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, USA Today, The Times ( London), The New York Law Journal, The Toronto Star, and the Corporate Legal Times, as well as BBC Radio.