NEW YORK CITY – U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona Wang ordered Devon Archer, former partner of Hunter Biden now working for Jeff Cooper of Edwardsville, to explain why he has kept documents away from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The order applies to thousands of documents from a $43 million bond issue that resulted in criminal and civil actions against Archer and others.
Wang initially entered the order in 2018, after jurors found Archer guilty of fraud.
She found Archer asserted privilege without giving the commission enough information to evaluate his assertions.
District Judge Ronnie Abrams granted Archer another trial nine days later, and Wang stayed the order.
She kept the stay in place in 2020, when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the verdict and ordered Abrams to sentence Archer.
Abrams sentenced him for a year this February, and he filed notice that he would appeal his conviction and his sentence.
Commission counsel Nancy Brown moved to lift the stay in March, stating 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,” Brown wrote.
Archer’s counsel Matthew Schwartz stated that the commission had all the information it needed and no additional discovery was appropriate.
Wang lifted the stay on April 28.