Suni Munshani Cleared of All Criminal Charges
BOSTON (January 11, 2005) — On January 3, 2005, Judge Joseph L. Tauro of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed all criminal charges against Suni Munshani, a successful Easton, Connecticut businessman. Mr. Munshani faced criminal charges arising out of a phony e-mail filed in a civil lawsuit against him by Terago Communications, Inc., a company for which he had performed services. The e-mail was created, unbeknownst to Mr. Munshani, by a third party.
On the first day of the trial the prosecution sought a brief continuance on the grounds that it was uncertain whether Mr. Munshani had, in fact, committed any crime. Shortly thereafter the prosecution moved to dismiss the case, candidly acknowledging that it would be unable to prove that Mr. Munshani was guilty of the charged offenses. The prosecution's admission that it would be unable to prove that Mr. Munshani was guilty of the charged offenses came nearly two years after his original indictment on obstruction of justice and criminal contempt charges.
The toll exacted on Mr. Munshani as a result of the pendency of the case has been substantial, in particular the damage of his reputation arising from the publicity surrounding both the criminal charges and the civil lawsuit. Indeed, since the identity of the creator of the bogus e-mail was unknown to Mr. Munshani at the time the civil case was decided, the judge in the civil case attributed the creation of the e-mail to Mr. Munshani. The civil case, including the erroneous attribution of the bogus e-mail to Mr. Munshani, has been cited repeatedly in the press.
Mr. Munshani was represented by Mark W. Pearlstein of the Boston office of McDermott Will & Emery. "We are gratified that the charges against Suni Munshani have been dismissed, and that the record confirms what we have been saying since the inception of this case: He is an innocent man," commented Mr. Pearlstein.
