Bank of NY suit in Russia adjourned until Oct 6

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian government's $22.5 billion lawsuit against the Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N) has been adjourned until October 6 after a key witness for the Russian side was unable to attend the Monday hearing, the bank said.

Since last May Russia has been seeking compensation after a former vice president at the bank, Lucy Edwards, helped launder more than $7 billion from Russia in the late 1990s through Bank of New York accounts and shell companies.

The witness, American jurist and legal scholar G. Robert Blakey, was the main author of the U.S. law on which Russia has based its suit -- the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO -- a U.S. anti-organized crime law from 1970.

He testified at a hearing in July that Russian courts can apply the U.S. law, and that the bank was liable under RICO for Edwards' role in money laundering.

On Monday, Blakey, who is 72, was supposed to be cross-examined by the bank's lawyers but could not attend the hearing due to illness, the spokeswoman, Natalya Miroevskaya, told Reuters.

"The testimony of the experts that have been put forward by the plaintiff needs a lot of further clarification, so it is essential that we see a thorough cross-examination," Miroevskaya said.

After Blakey is cross-examined, the court is to hear expert witnesses called by the bank, founded in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton and now a global custodial power handling $23 trillion in assets around the world.

Former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh has already submitted written testimony on behalf of the bank, saying that a Russian court has no right to try a RICO case. He has so far not traveled to Moscow to address the court.

In October, the court is likely to hold several days of hearings back to back in order to get through all of the remaining witnesses, Miroevskaya said.

The judge has insisted that the case move toward a quick conclusion after more than a year of procedural wrangling between the two sides, and lawyers for the Russian government have said they expect a ruling soon.

(Reporting by Simon Shuster; Editing by Andy Bruce)