SDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 8 – Bryan Cohen, a Goldman Sachs banker charged with insider trading with the same cooperating witness as Telemaque Lavidas now on trial, on January 7 pled guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, based on information from cooperator Marc Demane Debih. Inner City Press had it first.
On January 8, Demane testified and was cross examined, including on his plea agreement to get out from under a possible 750 year sentence. He admitted to burner phones and to working with jouranlists to pump up stocks, specifically naming Bloomberg and a reporter in Canada (on information and belief, at the Toronto Star). The US Attorney's office wrote to the Serbian embassy for him, it emerged Here's more of how it went, from Inner City Press' live-tweet thread:
Lavidas' lawyer: You only met Mr. Lavidas once, in 2011, correct? Demane: Correct. Q: And you never spoke with him about insider trading? Demane: No. Q: No you did not speak, or no, you spoke? Demane: I did not speak.
Q: You spoke about the sale of generic drugs to the Nigerian government, I mean the Algerian government, do you not? Demane: I did. Q: And this highlighted portion asks, Let me know if you have any interest? Demane: It does.
Q: You wrote in March, "Do you have any interest, Telemaque?" and he wrote back "We don't have any interest, it's too late," correct? Demane: Correct. Q: You were extradited from Syria, I mean Serbia, on May 9, 2019, correct? Demane: Correct.
Q: On the flight, you told the agents that the number of people involved in insider trading was huge, including reporters & traders, correct? Demane: Yes. Q: And you have met with prosecutors and FBI agents at least 19 times to get a more lenient sentence? A: Yes.
Q: You said you made $70 million, correct? Demane: Yes
Q: So the US Attorney's Office wrote a letter to the Serbian embassy on December 30, 2019, is that correct? Demane: Yes sir. Q: The indictment against you has 38 counts and you pled guilty to all of them? Demane: Yes sir.
Q: Let me ask you about the journalists to whom you leaked information, after you'd taken a position in it - and you would make money, correct? Demane: Yes.
Q: There were journalists in Bloomberg you leaked information to, correct? Demane: Correct.
Q: So you would pay your sources in cash, correct? Demane: Yes sir. Q: You would have them generate a false invoice? Demane: Yes.
Demase: I was a Lebanese resident and they were Israeli, and there is no contact-- Q: So it had 2 purposes, to permit money transfer between Israel & Lebanon. Demase: Correct. Q: You hired Tarek to pick up money for you? Demase: It was Court Consulting that did it
Q: I'm going to ask you some questions about your use of burner phones. You always asked your sources to use them? Demase: Yes. Q: And with George Nikas? Demase: We used Viber.
Q: So when you met sources, you turned off your cell phone so you couldn't be tracked by cell site information? Demase: Not all the time, but yes. Q: You had a safe in your house with cash? Demase: Yes I was keeping some cash in the house.
Redirect -- AUSA: Was the information you got about Ariad, was it unique? Demane: It was a different kind of source. AUSA: You were asked about your cooperation agreement... Does the outcome of this trial impact your agreement? Demane: No it doesn't.
Q: You agreed to forfeit $48 million.. who decided? Demane: The judge. AUSA: Are you afraid for your children? Demane: Yes. Because I'm testifying. AUSA: How much jail time do you face? Demane: 750 years [!]
And with that, Demane is led back into the cell block. The government offers into evidence exhibits mentioned during his testimony.
But will US Attorney's office make exhibits publicly available, through Press? Or withhold as on #OneCoin? FOIA has been filed... And Lavidas and Demane exhibits requested, including letter to Serbian Embassy...
As to Bryan Cohen, the US Attorney's Office did not publicize the proceeding or its 30 to 37 month plea deal, but Inner City Press was in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court as the only media, and spoke afterward with Cohen's defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman. More on Patreon here.
Brafman told Inner City Press the connection to the Lavidas trial is the same cooperating witness. More formally, he said that "To his credit, Mr. Cohen has accepted responsibility for his conduct and will thereby avoid a trial. We are hopeful that at sentencing we will be able to pursuade Judge Pauley that despite his criminal conduct Mr. Cohen is a fundamentally decent young man who should be sentenced in a relatively lenient fashion."
In the proceeding, Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman accepted a consent order of forfeiture for $260,000. The sentencing will be before Judge William H. Pauley III on April 3 at noon. The case is US v. Cohen, 19-cr-741 (Pauley).
On January 6, the trial of Telemaque Lavidas began before Judge Denise Cote. Assistant US Attorney Daniel Tracer in a short opening statement described it as an open and cut case, which will include cooperating witness Marc Demane.
Lavidas' lawyer John Streeter told that jury Demane is simply trying to reduce his sentence and has no first hand information. Here's some of how it went, live-tweeted here.
Hours after the opening statements, the US Attorney office asked Judge Cote to ban discussion of how it conducted its investigation: "Based on the contents of defense counsel’s opening statement, the Government respectfully requests a ruling in limine precluding the defense from introducing evidence about investigative techniques that the Government employed during the course of the investigation. As set forth below, such evidence improperly suggests that the jury shift its attention from the charges against the defendant to the conduct of the investigation, and is irrelevant and misleading. 1. Background In opening statements, defense counsel on two separate occasions engaged in a recitation of the Government’s investigation and the various investigative steps that have been taken with respect both to this defendant and other individuals. For example, defense counsel said: The third thing is that you are going to learn that the government gathered millions and millions of e-mails and text messages and electronic devices, phones and computers and all kinds of evidence from this huge network of people who were engaging in insider trading – from Demane, from Nikas, from their whole network. And you are also going to learn that they gathered e-mails, and phones, and computers and all kinds of other evidence from Mr. Lavidas. (Tr. 32). Later in his opening, defense counsel returned to the same topic: The third thing that I mentioned is that the government has been investigating this case for years. They have collected millions of e-mails and text messages. And they have collected Mr. Lavidas’s phones, his iPad, his computer, his documents. They have collected a long list of phones, computers, disc drives from Mr. Nikas. They collected a long list of those same things from Mr. Demane. And they collected those same things secretly, for years, from Google and other companies where their e-mail accounts were.... The Government respectfully requests that the Court preclude the defendant from introducing evidence about investigative techniques that the Government employed during the course of the investigation."
The US Attorney doesn't want the jury to hear about this. And the public? Inner City Press will continue to cover this case.
