BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian authorities seeking to recover billions of dollars in damages from the Bank of New York Mellon are looking to make history by using an American racketeering law in a Moscow court.

    Hearings resumed Monday in the Russian Federal Customs Service's 22.5 billion U.S. lawsuit against the bank, which was at the center of a major money-laundering scandal in the late 1990s.

    The lawsuit couldn't come at a more sensitive time, as U.S. banks are facing substantial writedowns following the subprime mortgage crisis.

    In a highly unusual move, Russia has brought the case under a famous U.S. law used to fight organized crime, and both sides have drawn on the expert opinion of some of America's best-known legal minds in preparing their case.

    The Russians have brought in Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and Robert Blakey, one of the authors of the 1970 statute on racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations, or RICO. Bank of New York Mellon lawyers are fielding Richard Thornburgh, a former U.S. attorney general and Pennsylvania governor.

    The RICO statue has never been successfully ruled on in a foreign court, according to lawyers. If the Moscow court agrees to apply the U.S. law, some lawyers predict it would open the floodgates for a slew of similar claims. 

    (Agencies)