By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope video, CJR
SDNY Courthouse, July 17 -- Card processing fraudster Richard D. Hart was sentenced not to 60 months but rather a year and a day on July 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York courtroom of Judge Vernon S. Broderick. The extra day, Judge Broderick said, was so that Rich Hart will be eligible for "good time." His family members in the gallery, where Inner City Press was the only media, let out sobs. Perhaps they expected no jail time, like so far UN briber Francis Lorenzo. We'll have more on this, and on the wider Mendlowitz case of which Hart is a part.
Back on June 13 multiple defendants in a "credit card cracking scheme" prosecution appeared all together on June 13 in the jury box of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York courtroom of Judge Vernon S. Broderick.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarrod L. Shaeffer described the process by which the NYPD is trying itself to "crack" the three cell phones it has seized in the case. He said it might take two more weeks, or two more months, or longer.
Judge Broderick who as some afterward noted has allowed a pharmacist to put off his sentencing for a year now said that waiting for this phone cracking was too much, and asked the assembled defense lawyers to agree among themselves to a trial date of either January 6 or January 13, 2020. The case is US v. Pickney, at al. 19-cr-12 (VSB).
One of the defendants is on for a Violation of Supervised Release hearing on June 24; another's lawyer Winston Lee sought his own hearing, after the hearing, to argue to have his GPS ankle bracelet removed.
The trial date kept getting pushed back as various of the CJA lawyers said they were involved in a sex trafficking trial in front of SDNY Judge Paul Engelmayer, on which we'll have more, and another trial slated before Judge Ronnie Abrams.
Afterward in the elevators one of the defense lawyers said, You must be the Press. Yes, you have a lot of defendants there. He replied, I represent only one. We hope to have more on this case. Watch this site, @InnerCityPress and the new @SDNYLIVE.
In other Judge Broderick news, three years after Dominican UN diplomat and UNCA donor Francis Lorenzo pled guilty to UN bribery, on 7 March 2019 Inner City Press which has been thrown out of the UN for asking SG Antonio Guterres about (his) corruption spotted Lorenzo directly in front of the UN on 46th Street. Politely it asked him, When will you be sentenced? Rather than answer, Lorenzo twice repeated, I'm just waiting for someone, then sped away, south to 45th Street, west toward Second Avenue and into a taxi. Periscope video here.
Now the U.S. Attorney's Office has once again pushed back Lorenzo's sentencing, from June 14 into September. A cynic might say it is hoped the public will forget, as for example a pharmacist who pled guilty to stealing $7 million seems to be hoping, pushing his sentencing back (though still less than Lorenzo). The U.S. Attorney on May 21 asked to push back the sentencing of Heidi Hong Piao for six months. We'll have more on this - and on this: " ORDER GRANTING NON-PARTIES FAIRFAX MEDIA LTD. AND AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION'S MOTION TO RECEIVE CERTAIN GRAND JURY MATERIALS: as to John W. Ashe, Francis Lorenzo, Ng Lap Seng, Jeff C. Yin, Shiwei Yan, Heidi Hong Piao. WHEREAS on March 1, 2019, non-party news organizations Fairfax Media Limited and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (together, the "News Organizations") filed a letter motion (Doc. No. 898) requesting an order pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e)(3)(E)(i) authorizing the Government to provide them with certain grand jury materials evidencing a $200,000 wire transfer payment allegedly made by Dr. Chau Chak Wing or his company to the late former President of the General Assembly of the United Nations John W. Ashe, as set forth in Paragraph 49 (including subpart (f)) of the Complaint in this action (Doc. No. 1); WHEREAS, on March 4, 2019, the Court entered an order requiring any objections to the News Organizations' request to be submitted to the Court no later than March 25, 2019 (Doc. No. 899); WHEREAS, on March 22, 2019, the Government responded to the News Organizations' letter motion indicating that it does not object to a finding that the News Organizations have met their burden under Rule 6(e)(3)(E)(i) with respect to the requested records (Doc. No. 900); WHEREAS no other responses or objections to disclosure of the requested materials were lodged with the Court; and WHEREAS, on March 29, 2019, the Court entered an Order (Doc. No. 901) finding that the News Organizations have met their burden under Rule 6(e)(3)(E)(i) with respect to the requested records, and requiring the Government and the News Organizations to confer regarding a proposed order governing the disclosure of the requested records, and to jointly submit a proposed order regarding the same by April 8, 2019; IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, without objection by the Government, and after considering the facts and circumstances of this matter, the Government shall, by no later than April 22, 2019, provide to the News Organizations the following documents to the extent obtained by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York via grand jury subpoena in the investigation of this matter: 1. Copies of bank statements and wire transfer records from financial institutions evidencing the $200,000 wire payment allegedly made by Dr. Chau Chak Wing or his company to John W. Ashe as set forth in Paragraph 49 of the Complaint, which statements and records may be redacted to the extent they contain information not pertinent to this payment; and 2. Copies of written statement(s) the Government received from any financial institution that produced such records attesting to the authenticity of those records as documents kept or maintained by the financial institution in the ordinary course of its business, which statements may be redacted to the extent they contain information not pertinent to this payment. SO ORDERED: (Signed by Judge Vernon S. Broderick on 4/9/2019)."
