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Federal authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into indicted medical malpractice titan Stephen L. Snyder allegedly directing another attorney to destroy a memo, The Baltimore Banner has learned.
The investigation and records related to it are under seal. But the issues were discussed in a telephone conference earlier this month between federal prosecutors, Snyder’s attorneys and U.S. District Court Judge George L. Russell, a recording of which The Banner obtained through the clerk’s office.
The hearing shed light on a sealed fight over secret grand jury subpoenas, as well as prosecutors’ sealed efforts to have Snyder’s attorney, Arnold Weiner, disqualified from the case. Subjects of the grand jury subpoenas have appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals — cases that are also under seal.
Weiner declined to comment, as did other attorneys associated with the appeals. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also declined to comment.
Snyder was long one of the most successful plaintiffs’ attorneys in Maryland. In 2018, after handling a series of cases involving people with organ transplant problems at the University of Maryland Medical System, federal prosecutors say that Snyder proposed that the hospital pay him $25 million for a sham consulting agreement. He said in exchange, he would hold off on a negative press blitz regarding the transplant program.
Hospital officials said they became uncomfortable and reached out to the FBI, which recorded a series of phone calls and an Aug. 23, 2018, meeting between Snyder and hospital officials. Snyder was indicted in 2020 on federal extortion charges, and the case has been winding through the courts.
In a June 2 order, Russell directed prosecutors and defense attorneys to prepare a status update within 90 days regarding the appeal of a civil case. The case cited is sealed and inaccessible in the federal court database.
But records in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals filed this week show the case centers on records from 2021 grand jury subpoenas. There are three separate appeals; the names of the movants are sealed, though their attorneys are listed.
Russell said during the June 2 telephone conference that in the sealed district case, Judge Stephanie Gallagher “mandated disclosure” of “certain materials that Mr. Snyder believed to be attorney-client privileged, or attorney work-product privileged.”
“There’s thousands of pages of documents, but one is the subject of this: a memo that the associate was allegedly instructed to destroy by Mr. Snyder,” Russell said.
Russell said the memo is the subject of an “ongoing criminal investigation that has ended up taking place.” It is not clear whether Snyder or someone else could face charges.
Russell also said that the matter could affect a motion filed by prosecutors to disqualify Snyder’s attorney, Weiner, as well as Weiner’s motion to dismiss the indictment against Snyder. There is no such motion on the public docket, though there are several sealed filings.
“It seems to me that memo, that is the subject of this case, is certainly relevant if not a critical piece of evidence that, if indeed has to be disclosed, could be germane to your availability as a witness and could affect materially the motion to disqualify,” Russell said. “It could, in some way, affect the merits of the motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Weiner said he did not agree that “the production of that memorandum would bolster the government’s motion to disqualify me.”
“I think we’ve laid out great detail and are seeking to lay out in further detail, through sharing material that’s protected by my work product privilege,” Weiner said. “As we view the case, I shouldn’t be disqualified, and I’m not a witness under any circumstances. We’re not agreeing that that document makes a difference.”
“It could help your case — I haven’t seen it,” Russell said.
The case is not the first time Maryland prosecutors have delved into the files of attorneys as they pursued criminal charges. The firm of Brown, Goldstein and Levy sought intervention from the appeals court as prosecutors went through files of attorney Joshua Treem in a money-laundering case against his then-client, Kenneth Ravenell. Earlier in that same case, federal authorities raided Ravenell’s office at the time, which was within the Murphy Firm.
justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Justin Fenton is an investigative reporter for the Baltimore Banner. He previously spent 17 years at the Baltimore Sun, covering the criminal justice system. His book, "We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption," was released by Random House in 2021 and became an HBO miniseries.
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