Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Freed overseas, thanks to help from Nevada

After 18 months in prison in Russia and Kazakhstan, Mark Seidenfeld is free.

For now.

The former Las Vegas resident was acquitted Wednesday in a Kazakh court of charges that he embezzled about $28,000 from his employer in the former Soviet republic, telecommunications company Arna Inc.

Seidenfeld is out of his cell, but still cannot leave the country. The company has 15 days to appeal. In Kazakhstan, there is no such thing as double jeopardy , so Seidenfeld could find himself back in court.

From his apartment in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, Seidenfeld expressed a mix of caution and optimism Wednesday. Even if the company appeals, he said, there are signs the judge recognizes his innocence. Signs such as the 45-minute sentencing speech she gave - a lengthy dressing down of the prosecution for poor evidence. And her insistence that Seidenfeld not suffer the customary hours long wait in a jail cell while release papers were prepared.

"The judge was clearly disgusted by what happened and the transparency of how screwy this case was," Seidenfeld said. "She waved aside the court marshal and said, 'He will wait like a human being in my chambers until the paper work is ready, and the paper work will be ready soon.' "

It's the latest, perhaps happiest, development in an international saga that started in December 2005, when Seidenfeld was arrested in Russia. He was extradited to Kazakhstan 11 months later - a 3,000 - mile, 32 - day trip on prisoner transport train.

He was arrested because Murat Zhunussov, an Arna investor angry with Seidenfeld for making it difficult to purchase the company at a cut rate, filed embezzlement charges with Kazakh financial police.

During Seidenfeld's incarceration, Zhunussov's attorneys reportedly suggested a ransom of $2.5 million to $5 million would free Seidenfeld. That's evidence, the New York native said, that Zhunussov bribed police to arrange his arrest and would accept a bribe to secure his release.

"They never expected it to get to court," Seidenfeld said. "They really expected that I would pay some crazy ransom and they would somehow be vindicated."

Seidenfeld's attorneys, sensing that, with police on his accuser's payroll, they couldn't help their client , decided to contact Seidenfeld's most distant - and possibly most dogged - ally, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D- Nev., Seidenfeld's congresswoman during the four months he lived in Las Vegas in 2004.

Berkley, who had hosted Kazakhstan Ambassador Kanat Saudabayev in Las Vegas, spoke with him about the situation. When Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited the White House in September, Berkley sat next to him and made her concern for Seidenfeld clear. In March Berkley and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid drafted a joint letter to the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, John Ordway, urging him to exert all means possible to ensure a speedy, fair trial.

Without these efforts, Seidenfeld said, he would not be free.

"Justice was served because of Shelley and the people who were making it very uncomfortable and difficult for them to screw up the legal system the way that they wanted to," he said. "They lost their confidence in their ability to buy off the legal system."

Berkley traveled to Kazakhstan last week and met Seidenfeld for the first time.

"I can't deny that the feeling of satisfaction is tremendous," she said.

Still, fear lingers for Seidenfeld. There is a chance Zhunussov will attempt to exact revenge outside the courtroom, he said. Seidenfeld feels uncomfortable in public and doesn't like to be apart from his fiance e , whom he'll marry as soon as he knows what will happen with the appeal.

If he is released for good, Seidenfeld will return to Moscow and work for Golden Telecom, his employer at the time of his arrest.

"It will be a bit nerve- racking to still hang around here," he said. "Hopefully I will find the proper balance between being careful enough and still going on."

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