Attorney for defense lawyer says police off track

The attorney for a Las Vegas defense lawyer under investigation in connection with allegations of helping a client flee the country said Wednesday that police are on the wrong track.

Michael Sanft said his client, attorney Ben Nadig, told federal prosecutors roughly six weeks ago that he thought a man he was representing on a drug charge was looking to go on the lam.

The client, Robert Wolfe, is charged in a federal drug trafficking complaint and has cooperated with federal prosecutors looking for bigger fish — local doctors illegally distributing painkillers.

Prosecutors last week sought to keep Wolfe in custody for trying to obtain a passport to flee to Panama. Wolfe’s new lawyer, Louis Schneider, argued in court that Wolfe, who is 69 with serious health issues, had no intention of leaving the country. Moreover, Wolfe was working undercover for Las Vegas police without the knowledge of federal prosecutors to snare Nadig in the alleged unlawful flight scheme, Schneider told the court.

On Wednesday, Sanft turned the tables on Schneider.

Sanft said Nadig, a former deputy city attorney, sent an email six weeks ago to the lead federal prosecutor in the drug case, Crane Pomerantz, expressing his concerns about Wolfe.

“He had a sense that he needed to do something,” Sanft said. “Once he realized that his client’s expression of wanting to leave the country was legitimate, he notified the U.S. attorney’s office. He had an ethical duty to report it, and that’s what he did.”

Last week Assistant U.S. Attorney Cristina Silva told a federal magistrate judge she thought Wolfe was “playing both sides” and was a flight risk. But the judge ordered Wolfe released under house arrest and electronic monitoring.

Schneider said in court that detectives with the Criminal Intelligence Section of the Metropolitan Police Department appeared to be serious about investigating Nadig. He said they raided Nadig’s downtown law office June 26 to gather evidence.

Wolfe told police it was Nadig’s idea for him to flee so that the lawyer could get at his client’s money, Schneider said. Wolfe even secretly recorded conversations with Nadig for police.

On Wednesday, Schneider said in an interview that he did not know Nadig’s motivation for going to federal prosecutors.

But he added: “The first thing that comes to mind is that it’s a serious violation of the attorney-client privilege, which prohibits a lawyer from disclosing any information about his client without the client’s consent.”

Sanft responded that the privilege doesn’t apply to a situation in which a lawyer suspects his client is about to commit a crime.

Last week Sanft said Nadig agreed to be interviewed by detectives when they executed a search warrant at his office. Detectives took Nadig’s cellphone and Wolfe’s client files, Sanft said.

“We’re cooperating at this point and believe everything will work out for Ben,” Sanft said.

A sworn affidavit by Detective Aaron Stanton providing probable cause for the search remains under seal.

But according to a copy of the search warrant, detectives looked for office billing statements and financial records tied to Wolfe’s drug trafficking case in federal court, as well as correspondence and documents related to Nadig’s defense of Wolfe.

Wolfe, known as the “old man” on the street, and five others were charged in a criminal complaint in September in the federal investigation.