Seventh Circuit Appeals Court Upholds $156 Million Verdict
Charitable Organizations Held Accountable for Financing Terrorism
Chicago, IL— December 3, 2008— The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today released a precedent-setting decision in the Boim terrorism financing case (Boim vs. Quaranic Literacy Institute, et al.), setting the standard for how the Antiterrorism Act of 1992 will be enforced. The 7th Circuit en banc panel, in a 7-3 decision, affirmed the 2004 trial court judgments in favor of the Boim family and against two defendants for their material support of the terrorist organization Hamas.
“This is a very important decision which strikes at the lifeblood of terror organizations,” said Stephen Landes, a Wildman Harrold partner who represented the Boim family in the case. “The essence of the Court's opinion is very straightforward: If you knowingly give money to a terrorist organization, you are responsible for the terrorists’ actions,” he said. “The Court has clearly established in its majority opinion that terrorist financiers cannot hide behind the charitable wings of the terror organizations to avoid liability for acts of terror.”
In a 39-page opinion, Judge Posner wrote: “Anyone who knowingly contributes to the nonviolent wing of an organization that he knows to engage in terrorism is knowingly contributing to the organization’s terrorist activities …[even] if you give money to an organization that you know to be engaged in terrorism, the fact that you earmark it for the organization’s nonterrorist activities does not get you off the liability hook.”
In 1996, terrorists from the militant Palestinian group Hamas gunned down 17-year-old David Boim in Israel’s West Bank. Four years later, his parents filed suit under the Antiterrorism Act, a 1992 law that allows American victims of international terrorism to collect damages in U.S. courts from those who furnish money or support to terrorist groups.
The Boim family was represented by Wildman Harrold attorneys including Stephen J. Landes, Richard M. Hoffman, David M. Oppenheim, Anne G. Kimball, Matthew M. Garrett, and Jeremy S. Goldkind as well as by Lewin & Lewin attorneys Nathan Lewin and Alyza D. Lewin. The winning trial strategy focused on the argument that the Antiterrorism Act does not require plaintiffs to trace the flow of monies to a specific terrorist act. The Court agreed. Showing that the defendants knowingly and intentionally supported the terrorist group that caused David Boim’s murder was enough to make the defendants accountable.
About Wildman Harrold
Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP is a 200-lawyer business law firm based in Chicago representing Fortune 500 companies and private businesses in Litigation, Business Transactions and Intellectual Property. The national Litigation practice is recognized as one of the best in the country and was selected by Corporate Counsel magazine as a "Go-To" Law Firm. The Transactions Department provides legal counsel on all corporate matters with a highly specialized practice for private equity funds. The Intellectual Property practice addresses the full-range of IP issues, including a premier team of Privacy and Data Security attorneys.