{"id":66309,"date":"2025-10-08T15:31:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seidenlawnyc.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=66309"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:07:14","slug":"seiden-law-represents-the-republic-of-malawi-in-pathbreaking-section-1782-proceeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/blog\/2025\/10\/seiden-law-represents-the-republic-of-malawi-in-pathbreaking-section-1782-proceeding\/","title":{"rendered":"Seiden\u5f8b\u5e08\u4e8b\u52a1\u6240\u4ee3\u8868\u9a6c\u62c9\u7ef4\u5171\u548c\u56fd\u5904\u7406\u521b\u7eaa\u5f55\u7684\u300a1782\u6761\u6b3e\u300b\u6848\u4ef6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seiden\u5f8b\u5e08\u4e8b\u52a1\u6240\u4ee3\u8868\u9a6c\u62c9\u7ef4\u5171\u548c\u56fd\u5904\u7406\u521b\u7eaa\u5f55\u7684\u300a1782\u6761\u6b3e\u300b\u6848\u4ef6 <\/strong><\/p>\n

On behalf of its client the Republic of Malawi, Seiden Law secured an order pursuant to 28 U.S.C. \u00a7 1782 to obtain discovery from Columbia Gem House Inc., a Washington State\u2013based gemstone supplier, for use in Malawi\u2019s contemplated criminal and civil proceedings related to unpaid royalties and taxes on gemstones mined in Malawi. \u00a0Malawi is seeking discovery from Columbia Gem House to help it investigate a scheme involving a mining company that allegedly underreported gemstone exports from the Chimwadzulu Hill ruby and sapphire mine, depriving the Malawian people of substantial royalties and tax revenues.<\/p>\n

Malawi\u2019s \u00a7 1782 application contained nearly 2,000 pages of original and secondary source materials, including license agreements, royalty agreements, critical meeting minutes, and other key mining reports from operations at the infamous ruby and sapphire mine located at Chimwadzulu Hill. The Court\u2019s \u00a7 1782 Order authorized Malawi to issue subpoenas for both documents and deposition testimony to Columbia Gem House. Malawi believes that discovery provided by Columbia Gem House will provide great insight and aid its investigation, as Columbia Gem House had an exclusive agreement with a local mining company, Nyala Mines, for the rights to sell all rubies and sapphires originating from the mine. Additionally, Columbia Gem House had, and still has, a trademark on rubies from the mine at Chimwadzulu Hill, called \u201cNyala Rubies.\u201d Nyala Rubies from the Chimwadzulu Mine can still be found being sold in the United States and in multiple other countries, including Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately after the filing of Malawi\u2019s application, the Court sua sponte<\/em> sealed the entire case, removing the public\u2019s ability to access it.\u00a0 In a recent and important development, the Court also granted Malawi\u2019s motion to unseal the case, recognizing the strong presumption in favor of transparency in judicial proceedings. The Court held that Columbia Gem House did not demonstrate \u201ccompelling reasons,\u201d as required in the Ninth Circuit under Kamakana v. City and Cnty. of Honolulu<\/em>, 447 F.3d 1172 (9th Cir. 2006), to overcome the strong presumption of public access to judicial records in the United States. Critically, the Court noted that \u201cby having access to the positions taken by each party and the Court\u2019s ultimate rulings, the public will have accurate information about findings and conclusions made in this case.\u201d By unsealing the record, the Court ensured that the public has access to accurate information about this matter.<\/p>\n

These victories underscore the power of strategic, cross-border litigation to advance government accountability and recover assets for sovereign nations. They also highlight the vital role of \u00a7 1782 discovery as a tool for foreign governments seeking evidence located in the United States.<\/p>\n

Columbia Gem House is currently seeking to vacate the Court\u2019s \u00a7 1782 Order.\u00a0 As of September 19, 2025, the parties finalized their submissions related to Columbia Gem House\u2019s motion to vacate the Court\u2019s \u00a7 1782 Order. Again, Seiden Law, on Malawi\u2019s behalf, submitted nearly an additional 1,000 pages of original and secondary source materials to support Malawi\u2019s investigative efforts to calculate the quantities and qualities of ruby and sapphire gemstones that were mined by Nyala Mines, originating from Chimwadzulu Hill from 2007 to 2021. The true quantities and qualities of ruby and sapphire gemstones that originated from Chimwadzulu Hill remain unknown.<\/p>\n

Malawi\u2019s \u00a7 1782 application and investigatory efforts were led by Senior Associate MarcAnthony Bonanno and Head of Litigation \/ Partner Amiad Kushner, along with Associate Peter Grabowski. The detailed work of Seiden Law\u2019s lawyers demonstrates how careful advocacy and a global legal strategy can help level the playing field for nations seeking redress against powerful corporate actors. The Court\u2019s order granting the application and the Court\u2019s order granting Malawi\u2019s motion to unseal can be found https:\/\/ecf.wawd.uscourts.gov\/doc1\/197111795042<\/a> and https:\/\/ecf.wawd.uscourts.gov\/doc1\/197111987644<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seiden Law \u4ee3\u8868\u9a6c\u62c9\u7ef4\u5171\u548c\u56fd\u5904\u7406\u5f00\u521b\u6027\u7684\u7b2c 1782 \u6761\u7a0b\u5e8f\u3002Seiden Law \u4ee3\u8868\u5176\u5ba2\u6237\u9a6c\u62c9\u7ef4\u5171\u548c\u56fd\uff0c\u6210\u529f\u83b7\u5f97\u4e86\u4e00\u9879\u2026\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-firm-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seidenlaw.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}