Deep Marine Technology

Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy is asking a Texas court for $400,000 from a man who said Kazeminy funneled money to former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. A judge in Houston hears Kazeminy’s defamation complaint today.

The lawsuit alleging that Nasser Kazeminy funneled $75,000 to Norm Coleman because “senators don’t make shit” should be discontinued, says the Texas attorney who brought the case. But future legal action could still revive the matter, Casey Wallace says.

All of the allegations contained in a pair of lawsuits detailing a purported scheme to funnel $100,000 to then-U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman are false, according to the findings of a Special Litigation Committee appointed by the company at the center of the legal dispute. The lawsuits allege that Nasser Kazeminy and his allies were responsible for gross fiscal mismanagement of Deep Marine Technology, a Houston-based underwater services firm. Among the alleged waste: an attempt by Kazeminy to provide funds to Coleman through a Minneapolis insurance firm where the former senator’s wife was employed.

The U.S. Senate contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken appears to be nearing an end. But a Texas legal battle that could also have grave political consequences for Coleman doesn’t seem likely to be resolved any time soon.

Both sides in the Texas lawsuit accusing Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy of funneling money to Norm Coleman want to extend an existing 60-day delay by another 30 days, putting off any possible trial action until early May. That’s about the time by which the former U.S. senator said today he expects the Minnesota Supreme Court [...]

Here are two long, transcribed excerpts from B.J. Thomas’ deposition on March 19. Thomas was formerly chief financial officer of the Texas-based marine-services firm Deep Marine Technology.
The deposition was part of a civil lawsuit filed by Thomas and former Deep Marine CEO Paul McKim in Texas in October 2008. The suit implicates Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy [...]

Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., got passing mention in a civil lawsuit filed in Texas last fall that alleged a campaign contributor steered unreported cash his way. Now details from a deposition in that case have Coleman donor Nasser Kazeminy saying, “United States senators don’t make shit,” one minute and the next demanding that [...]

AIG chief Edward Liddy mentioned, while sitting in his congressional hot seat Wednesday, that AIG insures oil rigs. If Norm Coleman was watching at home, perhaps he turned to his wife and said, “Honey, that’s what you do!” Allegations of unreported monetary gifts — cloaked as payments from a Coleman contributor’s marine-exploration firm to the insurance company where Coleman’s wife works — remain alive (if dormant) in Texas and Delaware courts. And Coleman still wants to use campaign cash to fight them, aides say.

A Texas lawsuit that alleges Nasser Kazeminy, a longtime associate of Norm Coleman, attempted to improperly funnel $75,000 to the former senator has been delayed for 60 days.  Attorneys for Deep Marine Technology, a Houston-based company controlled by Kazeminy, successfully argued that the firm needs additional time to conduct an internal investigation of the allegations.