Kirsch & Niehaus Secures Affirmance from Second Circuit Court of Appeals Dismissing RICO and Alien Tort Statute Claims

On January 16, 2026, Kirsch & Niehaus secured an affirmance from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholding the dismissal RICO and Alien Tort Statute claims against their clients, two Kazakhstani businessmen. The appeal was from an order and judgment by the Hon. LeShann DeArcy Hall of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York denying with prejudice Plaintiff Yerkyn Amirkhanov’s motion to file a second amended complaint.  Judge Hall dismissed the case pursuant to FRCP 12(b)(1) for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.  Specifically, she had ruled that Amirkhanov had failed to allege a domestic injury as required under RICO and the ATS. 

On appeal, Amirkhanov argued that the individual defendants’ use of American financial systems to facilitate the alleged racketeering and the effect of an allegedly coerced forfeiture of business interests constituted a domestic injury. The Second Circuit panel was unpersuaded by Amirkhanov’s arguments, and adopted Kirsch & Niehaus’s position in full, concluding that because all alleged racketeering activity occurred in Kazakhstan, between Kazakhstani citizens, and the effects were felt in Kazakhstan, the case was properly dismissed, albeit pursuant to FRCP 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim, rather than lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Read the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision here.

Read more about Kirsch & Niehaus’s successful dismissal of the claims in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York here.