Florida Bar Group to Honor Indicted Miami Lawyer Ben Kuehne

[WSJ_law_blog]

You’re a highly-respected Miami lawyer. You’re hired to vet a $5.3 million legal fee paid by a Colombia drug kingpin to his trial attorney. You’re indicted by the feds for approving the fee, which they say came from laundered funds. Following the indictment, the feds appear ambivalent, switching prosecutors in the case and reconsidering the charges.

Up till now, that’s more or less been the story of the curious case of Ben Kuehne, who stands accused of laundering drug profits while vetting a $5.3 million legal fee paid by Medellin drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa Vasquez to his attorney, Roy Black. (Kuehne reportedly received $200,000 for the work.) Tomorrow night, however, Kuehne’s situation will grow stranger still, when the Miami Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will award him its highest honor. (Here’s the story from the NLJ; find past coverage of Kuehne’s case here, here and here.)

Kuehne, a member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors and the former president of the Dade County Bar Association, will receive the Daniel S. Pearson-Harry W. Prebish Founder’s Award, which is given “in recognition of a lifetime commitment to preserve the constitutional rights of all citizens and for manifesting the very best principles for which FACDL-Miami stands -- an openhearted devotion to justice, civility, discretion, courage, respect for human dignity and mercy.” Rick Freedman, the incoming president of the FACDL’s Miami chapter, said chapter leaders decided to give Kuehne the top award before his indictment.