Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma is a federal criminal trial lawyer who defends complex, international prosecutions in U.S. courts. The ZMO Law team represents clients in matters brought in the United States based on conduct that occurred abroad — including cases involving alleged offenses spanning South America, Mexico, Canada, China, Europe, and Africa. We frequently work with attorneys and law firms abroad who need advice on U.S. criminal law to respond to investigations or prosecutions in U.S. courts.
International prosecutions brought in the United States raise unique legal and procedural issues and can be some of the most challenging — and rewarding — cases our firm handles.
What Makes International Cases Different?
Most international prosecutions in the United States are brought in federal courts, especially the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and the Eastern District of New York (EDNY).
A lawyer qualified to represent clients in these matters must be comfortable with federal law and criminal procedure, including special considerations that arise when conduct occurred outside the United States, such as:
- Challenges relating to jurisdiction, venue, and nexus to the United States
- International treaty frameworks and law enforcement cooperation procedures
- Processes for obtaining evidence located abroad
- Handling of classified evidence under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA)
In addition, language skills and the ability to work with qualified translators and specialists are essential for accurate communication with clients and for investigating facts that span multiple countries.
Why choose ZMO Law to defend an International Criminal Case?
Experienced Federal Advocacy
ZMO Law’s principal attorney, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, has decades of experience representing clients in serious federal cases — including matters involving cross-border conduct — before juries in the federal courts of New York.
Case Highlight: Getting the Language Right. In an international matter in West Africa, key evidence and testimony revolved around a lesser-known Nilo-Saharan language closely related to the Songhai language group. When other counsel, the prosecutor, and even the court struggled to identify the client’s native language, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma recognized the correct language and secured a qualified interpreter and investigator sensitive to both linguistic and cultural nuances. This ability to communicate with the client was critical for safeguarding his client’s rights.
In international prosecutions, sensitivity to linguistic nuance is essential to a competent defense. The case itself also revolved around interpretation and misinterpretation of language, as was extensively chronicled in a long, thoughtful article about the case in The New Yorker. ZMO Law client Idriss Abdelrahman, a Malian native, was lured to Ghana by U.S. authorities, taped by a confidential informant offering a lucrative drug deal, and irregularly rendered to the United States in a private jet chartered by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Based on errors in translations, the U.S. falsely accused Mr. Abdelrahman and his co-defendants of working with Al Qaeda, a charge the judge ultimately found unsupported when she granted leniency at sentencing two years later.
Language capabilities
Principal attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma speaks fluent Spanish. Our paralegal team is bilingual in Spanish and English with native-level proficiency in both languages. We frequently work with Spanish-speaking investigators and represent both bilingual and monolingual Spanish-speaking clients.But language skills do not end there. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma also speaks French and has studied Arabic and Portuguese. More important than any particular language, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma’s critical familiarity with language patterns allows him to identify the needs of international clients and ensure that qualified experts are on the team to help. For example, in a case that pled during jury selection, other attorneys, the prosecutor, and the judge were unable to identify Songhai, the native language of our client and his co-defendants, who also spoke a little French and Arabic.
Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma identified the language and brought in a uniquely qualified interpreter and investigator who was sensitive to both language and cultural considerations affecting our client. Finding the right language experts in international cases is essential to providing competent representation, even when clients have basic knowledge of their non-native languages.
Classified evidence handling
Many international cases, including prosecutions for controlled substances, material support of terrorism, large-scale frauds and other cases that implicate national security, involve evidence that has been classified by the U.S. government and must be handled according to the Classified Information Procedures Act or “CIPA,” which created detailed rules about how courts handle classified information and disclose it to the defense.
The first step in a CIPA case is to engage a defense attorney who has adequate security clearance to view and handle the documents at issue. Security clearance is a multi-step process the attorney must go through involving an extensive background investigation and training on handling classified information that is provided by a specialized office within the U.S. Department of Justice.
Two of ZMO Law’s attorneys have Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information (“SCI”) clearance, and therefore are permitted to manage the most sensitive classified documents in individual cases.
Security clearance, however, is not always enough to view classified information in criminal cases. In most CIPA cases, the government moves to hide all classified information from the defense and counsel must fight to articulate reasons that the information should be made available to them. Making a CIPA motion requires extensive investigation and review of non-classified material to convince a judge that classified documents–which the attorney has not seen–are essential to the defense case.
International criminal law experience
Most importantly, though, ZMO Law attorneys have experience working with clients whose conduct took place around the world, but were brought to U.S. courts to face prosecution. We have represented clients accused of fraud, terrorism, sex crimes, and drug smuggling based on conduct they engaged in overseas.
We frequently take cases to trial, and we prepare for trial in every case. In international cases, we file motions seeking discovery under the Classified Information Procedures Act, challenging jurisdiction, to dismiss charges, to obtain exculpatory evidence, and to exclude illegally obtained evidence, among others.
Here are some specific examples of our high-profile international cases:
- Pretrial and pre-extradition representation of Hugo Carvajal, the former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence service and a co-defendant of recently-captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma represented General Carvajal starting before he was extradited from Spain to the United States and until shortly before he pled guilty to drug and gun-trafficking charges in U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York. General Carvajal was first indicted in 2011 in the same case that led to the unprecedented rendition of Nicolas Maduro, the sitting president of Venezuela, in 2026.
- Trial and sentencing advocacy for China-born Prof. Shujun Wang. Prof. Wang was a historian who emigrated from Tsingtao Province to the United States in the 1990s. He became a leader in the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement, but traveled back and forth to China regularly in the 2000s. The U.S. government accused Prof. Wang of providing information about participants in the pro-democracy movement to the Ministry of State Security in China in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma represented Prof. Wang at a jury trial in 2024 in the Eastern District of New York. After Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma advocated for him at sentencing, the Hon. Denny Chin sentenced Prof. Wang to probation with no incarceration.
- Trial, sentencing, and appeal for Alexander Zhukov, the alleged creator of Methbot. Mr. Zhukov, a Russian national, was arrested in a joint operation between Bulgarian police and the FBI in Sofia. He was charged with being the mastermind behind a notorious internet advertising fraud scheme known as Methbot that employed bots to provide non-human internet traffic. For the trial, our team engaged a Russian-speaking attorney and an expert on internet advertising markets. We interviewed witnesses abroad through secure channels and one of the trial witnesses testified from Africa.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Consultation for International Investigations or Prosecutions
If you or your client is under investigation by U.S. authorities for conduct abroad — or if your firm abroad needs U.S. criminal law expertise for American proceedings — early consultation with experienced federal counsel is critical. U.S. investigators often use partnerships with foreign law enforcement and treaty-based procedures to pursue cases involving narcotics, fraud, national-security offenses, and more.
ZMO Law PLLC is available to discuss:
- Federal pretrial litigation strategy
- U.S. court processes and potential charges
- Coordination with foreign counsel on discovery issues
- CIPA and classified evidence procedures
A wide range of conduct abroad comes within the reach of the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies. While local diplomatic arrangements might provide some protection, U.S. government investigators aggressively use available processes and partner with in-country law enforcement to prosecute drug crimes, fraud, terrorism, sex crimes, and more.
The earlier you or your local lawyer consults with a U.S. federal lawyer, the better chance you have at protecting your rights in American courts.