SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 28 – While many even most cases in the Magistrates Court of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are sealed, on June 27before Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorensteina defendant was brought in shackled but in a polo shirt and khakis, promoted by the prosecutors, and ultimately released.
His name is Paul A. Rinfret and he has been living in a foreclosed on house on Long Island for some time. The US Attorney's Office call him a former Wall Street trader, but at this point his children might not sign on to his bail and he has a Federal Defenders lawyer. With Inner City Press the only media in the Magistrates Court, the government wanted $500,000 in equity signed on to for the bond. But after some phone calls that wasn't possible.
Judge Gorenstein upped the bond to $1 million, secured by whatever equity his mother in law's house has, and three signers. Will these include his children? The charging document says Rinfret gave them money, but at the bond hearing the government said he stole their money too. They said he confessed to running a Ponzi scheme.
He was released, while a homeless man with a gun maybe or maybe not in his bag in Battery Park was detained. And so it goes in the SDNY Murky Mag Court.
Cynthia Jordan, now 61, was arrested in March for stealing from the Wall Street firm in which she worked in the accounting department, to the tune of $688,142. Only $73,000 of this was by wire transfers, it emerged in the Mag Court with Inner City Press the only media present. There were also 59 false overtime payments, 111 paychecks and other hard copy checks. But it's all under wire fraud. The maximum sentence in 20 years in prison but there is a plea agreement, with the sentencing set for October 3. Inner City Press will continuing to follow this and other Mag Court cases. u
On June 25 Magistrate Judge Lehrburgerordered detained a defendant named Martinez charged with 33 kilograms of cocaine, a first name - Eliot - and a case number were provided: 19-mj-5950.
But by 5 pm, even after Judge Lehrburger had detained Mr. Martinez and set a July 8 hearing, PACER said "Cannot find case 19-mj-5950." So Inner City Press reports: Judge Lehrburger said he did not find a risk of flight, but given the heavy weight of coke, and that Martinez violated the terms of his probation in New Jersey, he would be detained. This came four hours after an appearance before Judge Castel of a defendant accused of offenses against children, a defendant who unlike Martinez was allowed free on bond, to his mother's house in Freehold, New Jersey...
