SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 19 – The US has quietly filed a criminal antitrust case against Banca IMI trader Larry D. Meyers, concealing the case number and adjourning what was listed as a plea proceeding on June 19 before Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Inner City Press can report.
The case involves violations with the Sherman Act with respect to American Depository Receipts. It is a quiet part of a larger case.
Back on 9 May 2019 DOJ Antitrust Division criminal chief James J. Fredricks signed a "Notice of Intent to File An Information" against Meyers. Through so-called "Wheel B" it was assigned to SDNY Judge Engelmayer, by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang.
On June 5 - it is not clear where - Meyers and his attorney Dan Portnov "waive[d] in open court prosecution by indictment and consent[ed] that the proceeding may be by information instead of by indictment."
That way, instead of through the more public Magistrates Court, Meyers' presentment was before Judge Engelmayer, with a Docket Number listed as "19-CR- [blank]," quickly released on $100,000 bond, travel restricted to the US and Ireland unlike most defendants confined to two or three US Districts.
This is the VIP aisle of indictments, with the DOJ helping to avoid any possible perp walk.
And so it was that while the week's SDNY "Civil and Criminal Proceedings Calendar" for the week of 06/17/19 listed on June 19 at 5 pm a plea before Judge Engelmayer in USA v. Meyers, 19-cr-[blank], the courtroom of Judge Engelmayer where Inner City Press had been earlier in the day on a Hobbs Act robbery trialwas empty.
There was no sign on the door explaining why, as was done for example on the door of Judge Deborah Batts about Michael Avenatti. There are VIP lines, and vip lines.
Currently the docket does not show where the next proceeding will take place. But Inner City Press believes it knows. Watch this site - and for more, see its Patreon, here.
While many even most cases in the Magistrates Court of the SDNY are sealed, on June 19 Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in processing three alleged co conspirators did not use the word sealed or docketing delayed.
No case number was given, that the surnames of the defendants were Perez, Grito and (it seemed) Gazono. Or Bisono. He was represented by the Federal Defenders, so one would think it would be listed there. He was also pressed for an 8 pm curfew, which Federal Defender Julia Gatto effectively fought off.
This was undermine by a CJA lawyer agreeing to the curfew for his client - but Judge Netburn in any event did not agree to it. Instead she told Pre-Trial Services to go check out the home to see if the monitoring needed to enforce a curfew could work there.
The day's last case before Judge Netburn seemed straightforward. Ricardo Reynoso, resident of Massachusetts, had been arrested at 11:30 am that day in Connecticut. Judge Netburn released him on $75,000 bond.
Judge Netburn, who the previous day sealed and delayed docketing on a money laundering case from New Jersey completing the tri-state trifecta, told Ricardo Reynoso about a program she and another SDNY judge (apparently SDNY Chief Judge Collen McMahon) run. It is called Young Adult Opportunity Program.
Because Inner City Press is not *only* about pushing for transparency, for example of the a suddenly sealed sentencing before Judge Lorna G. Schofield on June 17, we link to this program here. It's all to the good. So is transparency, including on warrants. We'll have more on this.
The next hearing for Bryan Pivnick is July 1. Inner City Press and @SDNYLIVE will be there.
