By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
As 9/11 victims await a federal judge’s decision on whether Saudi Arabia should be dismissed as a defendant in their massive civil action, “serious” allegations have emerged that a global accounting firm covered up evidence that a co-defendant “was involved in financing the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
An anonymous whistleblower’s letter to a plaintiff’s lawyer involves a forensic accounting expert for the defense, Jonathan T. Marks, who was retained by the Saudi-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) to review records produced during the litigation related to claims made against WAMY and testify about his findings.
WAMY, whose U.S. chapter in Virginia was founded in 1992 by a nephew of Osama bin Laden, is a Saudi-funded charity that promotes Islamic teachings and encourages Muslims to be more religiously observant, according to the Pew Research Center. It is “widely regarded as promoting the strict Wahhabi brand” of ultra-conservative Islam, the center said in a 2010 report.
An Oct. 9 letter to presiding U.S. Magistrate Sarah Netburn from lawyers for both the 9/11 families and companies with commercial loss claims says the whistleblower “asserts first-hand knowledge that Marks and his employer, the accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly U.S. LLP, with WAMY and its counsel, engaged in wrongful conduct during Marks’ engagement with WAMY. The conduct, as alleged, distorted the evidentiary record, obstructed expert discovery, and undermined the integrity and purpose of the deposition process (here to elicit the expert’s own independent and uninfluenced responses to the questions posed).”
Two days later, Netburn, observing that the allegations are “serious,” ordered WAMY, its lawyers at New York’s law offices of Omar T. Mohammedi as well as Baker Tilly and Marks to “preserve any and all evidence related to these allegations.’’ WAMY was given until Nov. 4 to file paperwork responding to the letter. She likewise instructed plaintiffs’ lawyer to do the same and to provide any information “relevant to identifying its source,” but declined to allow the plaintiffs’ lawyers to investigate for possible sanctions “at this time.”
Baker Tilly has dozens of offices across the U.S. Its lone office in Florida is in Tampa. Marks is today a partner at BSO USA, another huge accounting and advisory firm.
The most stunning allegation contained in the whistleblower’s July 2024 letter sent to Sean Carter, a Philadelphia lawyer who represents various companies who suffered damages in the al Qaeda terrorist attacks of Sept.11, 2001, is that Baker Tilly’s review “did find very damaging evidence against WAMY.”
“BT [Baker Tilly] did not disclose what they really found in its review. BT found things that would draw a conclusion that WAMY was involved in financing the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and with the help of BT and its partner (Jonathan Marks), purposely hide (sic) these facts,” the whistleblower’s letter states.
THE DECEPTION BEGINS
What allegedly happened is detailed in the Oct. 9 letter to the magistrate.
The deception apparently began on Aug. 7, 2020 when Marks submitted in his name a rebuttal report for WAMY that “was authored wholly or principally by others and was based on information culled selectively from investigations conducted by others in Marks’ name,” the letter says. Precisely what was being rebutted is unclear, but presumably testimony from a plaintiffs’ expert. The plaintiffs deposed Marks remotely via Zoom on July 22, 2021.
The gist of the whistleblower’s accusations about Marks is that he was coached during his deposition by two Baker Tilly employees who “secretly” attended, took credit for the work of others, helped falsify his time records and presented them to the court to cover it up, then lied about it under oath. The whistleblower also accused WAMY and its lawyers of active involvement in the scheme.
“There was a total of five people in the deposition room, you were told of only three,” the whistleblower wrote. “The other two were Steven Goldberg and Andy Guzman, both employees of Baker Tilly. Steven Goldberg was the AML [anti-money laundering] and Terrorism expert in the room to coach Marks thru his answers. This was done because Marks had spent very little time on this case. There was a large whiteboard where both Guzman and Goldberg could write answers on, that Marks would tell during the deposition.”
“Baker Tilly used employees with no forensic or very little experience to review the documents, this was noted by the lawyer for WAMY,” the whistleblower went on. “The Lawyers from the office of Law Firm of Omar T. Mohammedi, LLC, were in the room andwere part of the coaching, this was witnessed by the Managing Partner of the Philadelphia office who was down the hall from the deposition, and he came to see what the yelling was about during the breaks.”
The two Baker Tilly employees who coached Marks, Goldberg and Guzman, later “went to senior management at Baker Tilly with these claims, gave them evidence, and wrote a letter and [sent] a whistleblower hotline complaint to BT management,” the whistleblower wrote. “Guzman wrote a 10-page letter, whistleblower accusation and sen[t] it to the operating committee, General Counsel and Chairman. Guzman and Goldberg were never talked to by management. They were told that this would cause great damage to the firm and to stop bringing it up.”
The plaintiffs’ Oct. 9 letter adds that Baker Tilly “has not reported the wrongdoing to Plaintiffs’ counsel or this Court.”
The allegedly withheld evidence tying WAMY to financing the 9/11 attacks has yet to come to light.
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