NEW YORK CITY – For five years Devon Archer, former partner of Hunter Biden now working for Jeff Cooper of Edwardsville, has maintained secrecy for thousands of documents about events that led to his conviction in a $43 million fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission wants the documents, or at least basic information about them, for a civil suit it filed against Archer in 2016.
The SEC obtained an order for production after jurors found Archer guilty, but his appeal of his conviction stayed proceedings in the civil suit.
Earlier this year, after the judge in Archer’s criminal case sentenced him, the commission asked the judge in his civil case to lift the stay.
Archer’s counsel claimed no additional discovery was appropriate.
No resolution of the dispute came about, as of April 22.
The government started criminal and civil actions against Archer and others in 2016, alleging they misused proceeds of Oglala Sioux bond issues.
In the civil suit, the SEC claims conspiracy leader Jason Galanis enlisted his father John Galanis, Archer, and Bevan Cooney.
The complaint states that Jason Galanis told Archer and Cooney that the primary objective was “to get us a source of discretionary liquidity.”
It alleges that Jason Galanis would use the liquidity to fund a lavish lifestyle for him and his father and to expand corporations in which Archer and Cooney invested.
In 2014, Jason and John Galanis arranged for the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation to issue bonds three times in eight months.
They allegedly found investors in unsuspecting clients of investment firms over
which Jason Galanis and associates had gained control.
The complaint states that according to trust indentures, proceeds of bond issues were to be invested primarily in an annuity to pay interest and principal.
Jason Galanis gained control instead, and he and associates allegedly used the proceeds for their personal benefit.
They allegedly boosted the net capital of two brokers in which Archer and Cooney had interests.
The complaint states that they financed an initial public offering of a corporation in which Jason Galanis, Archer, and Cooney held shares. Archer allegedly received $700,513 in five months.
It states that independent trustees of asset manager Burnham Securities sought ironclad assurance from Archer that Jason Galanis wouldn’t be involved.
Archer allegedly provided assurance, “but nonetheless continued to significantly involve Jason Galanis in Burnham’s business activities.”
Jason Galanis also allegedly advanced the scheme by sending $15 million from one of his entities to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, which Archer owned.
Archer and Hunter Biden operated the company as partners.
The complaint states that Archer’s bank asked him to identify the source of the money and Archer told the bank it came from real estate sales.
Due to the overlap between criminal and civil actions, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara moved to stay discovery in the civil case about witnesses in the criminal case.
Archer’s counsel David Nelson opposed a stay, claiming the allegations had an adverse effect on his client’s reputation and business.
Nelson argued that Archer lost opportunities and resigned from boards of directors of several companies.
“The longer this case remains pending, the more entrenched and irreparable these injuries become,” he wrote.
District Judge William Pauley stayed discovery of material from the criminal case but allowed Archer to discover other information the commission collected.
Archer asked the SEC to produce all documents it gathered from 85 entities and individuals.
The list included Hunter Biden.
In 2017, the SEC produced more than three million documents.
Nelson complained that the commission dumped its entire file without meaningful specification or direction.
Commission counsel Nancy Brown responded that if some of it was irrelevant, Archer created the problem in fashioning his requests.
Archer produced documents too, but for about 4,500 documents he produced a privilege log that didn’t explain reasons for asserting privilege.
Brown moved to compel production of a proper log and brought the motion to Magistrate Judge Ona Wang in May 2018.
Brown told Wang she issued a subpoena to Stephen Weiss, a lawyer on many of the transactions at issue, and he shipped documents to former clients.
“He was not going to make his own privilege review. He was going to ask his former clients to assert privileges with respect to his files,” Brown said.
“Mr. Archer on his own, without request by us and without consultation with us, sought to complete a single privilege log from every single former client of Mr. Weiss who made an assertion of privilege.
“We simply were presented with this line by line privilege log that is completely deficient in terms of information.”
She said she couldn’t understand how Archer asserted privilege for communication between Jason Galanis and Weiss.
Nelson said, “These were paper documents, incomplete email chains, missing pages presented in banker’s boxes that we had to scan and then go through.”
Brown said, “Mr. Weiss probably has these documents and could have produced them in electronic form.”
Wang said, “Maybe Mr. Archer didn’t really want a robust privilege log.”
At a hearing before Pauley in June 2018, Brown said $43 million was stolen.
“We’ve only been able to figure out where some multiple tens of millions of dollars have gone but not all of it by any stretch,” she said.
On June 28, 2018, jurors in the criminal court of District Judge Ronnie Abrams convicted all defendants.
Pauley lifted the stay on discovery in the civil case.
On Nov. 6, 2018, Wang gave Nelson three weeks to produce a privilege log that complied with court rules.
On Nov. 15, 2018, Abrams granted Archer a new trial.
Archer moved to reinstate the stay and Pauley granted it.
In 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury’s verdict and ordered Abrams to sentence Archer.
Four employees of Jeffrey Cooper sent letters to Abrams pleading for leniency.
Abrams sentenced Archer for a year this February, and he appealed his sentence and his conviction on March 15.
On March 25, Brown asked District Judge Gregory Woods to lift the stay and enforce Wang’s order for a proper privilege log.
Woods had taken the case after Pauley’s death last year.
Brown wrote that the commission hadn’t determined what relief it should seek.
“That determination may be informed by the information Archer may ultimately turn over, including whether his role in the scheme was as limited as he has maintained,” she wrote.
On the same date Archer’s counsel Matthew Schwartz told Woods the commission had everything it needed and no additional discovery was appropriate.