Alan Greer Battles Big Gov

'This is a professional death sentence.''

That's Alan Greer, in opening statements in his defense of prominent Hunton & Williams banking attorney Carlos Loumiet, formerly of Greenberg Traurig. The proceeding is before Treasury Department Administrative Law Judge Ann Z. Cook:

Holding up a three-page fax that Hamilton Bank received detailing how the Russian loan sales were connected to other securities purchases -- deals that later were proven to be illegal -- Straus tore the sheets apart to illustrate how Loumiet had intentionally separated the bank memo to mislead regulators.

But Greer insisted that no one knew that any crime had been committed when Loumiet did the reports and that bank officers lied to him as well as to the regulators.

He also noted that the banking attorney became involved after the investigation started, spending less than 10 hours on the investigation over a period of two months.

Greenberg Traurig has already settled the case with regulators -- agreeing to pay $8.5 million in penalties without admitting fault. But Loumiet, insisting he did nothing wrong, opted to go to trial.

Under administrative law rules, the trial will last about 2 ½ weeks and then recess before closing arguments are heard in November. The law judge's ruling is expected next year.

Anyone care to wager on the outcome of this one?