STRUCK OFF FOR LYING TO AMERICAN INVESTIGATORS

A solicitor has been struck off and ordered to pay costs of £3,095 after being convicted in the USA of making false statements to investigators during an interview. Alex Rolf van der Zwann, who was admitted in 2009 and was an associate in Skadden's London office at the time, was interviewed by the US Special Counsel's Office (SCO) as part of an investigation into the activities of the Russian Government in connection with the 2016 US presidential election. During an eight-hour interview, he deliberately failed to disclose a conversation he had in September 2016 with Rick Gates, who subsequently worked for the Trump election campaign, and concealed relevant emails. He was fined $20,000 and sentenced to one month's imprisonment, even though full information was later supplied to the SCO. 3 July 2019