In NCAA Trial Net Worth Of Witness Sood Excluded Unnamed Bank Is Now Berkshire Bank @SDNYLIVE

By Matthew Russell Lee, #SDNYLIVE, Scope

SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 30 – There is a continuum of focus on the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, ranging down from investigations of Donald Trump through this coming week's narrowing NCAA basketball corruption trial down to the extremely narrow prosecution of only Patrick Ho for United Nations bribery.  

While rarely viewed together, there is a pattern here,  examined below. On April 30 government cooperating witness Munish Sood was asked about his motives: to avoid a $750,000 fine and being charged with lying to FBI agents, which charged the defense argued would normally not be forgiven by "the Southern District of New York," meaning the prosecutors not the court. 

  The government objected to a question for Sood's net worth, and Judge Edgardo Ramos sustained the objection. Sood's previous role in a bank in New Jersey came up, without the bank being named. Inner City Press reports that it was First Choice Bank, which was bought by Berkshire Bank whose checks Sood later used for bribes. Notably, Berkshire Bank has removed from its website the page about its purchase of First Choise Bank, and Sood's services, for $117 million. But still online is their press release of a deal with Sood's Princeton Advisory Group, here...

  On April 29 at 2:30 pm after Sood quoted defendant Christian Dawkins that directly paying players and deal with their parents was "cleaner" than working through coaches like Tony Bland, a discovery dispute erupted. The defense team does not want to turn over its members' and former member's notes with witnesses they seek to call. Judge Ramos noted that the former defense lawyer was still counsel of record and had not been relieved. Whereupon the defense asked for a sidebar conversation out of the hearing of those like Inner City Press still in the courtroom. But the sidebar discussion was still transcribedby the official court reporter.

  When the sidebar was over nothing was said about its contents except a request by the defense that the transcript be sealed. Judge Edgardo Ramos asked if any of the parties objected - no question was asked to the press, or for the public - and the motion to seal was granted, subject the judge said to any more "by the parties." We'll have more on this.

  Earlier on April 29 Sood interpreted for the jury a series of video clips in which Christian Dawkins said that Lamont Evans was not worth the $4,000 a month bribe, unlike Book Richardson, and that his company LOYD Inc should focus more on paying the coaches for particular transactions rather than retainers. Sood recounted how he took $25,000 in cash and deposited in LOYD's account in New Jersey with Bank of America.

The first week of the trial ended on April 26 with Munish Sood being asked about a $2,000 Berkshire Bank check he wrote to Lamont Evans, after he said Marty Blazer harassed him to give Evans money. He testified about a meeting in Miami, adding that he personally liked Christian Dawkins, whom he is testifying against. At 2:30 pm after he stepped down and the jury left the defense pointed out that Juror #3 has been nodding off. Judge Edgardo Ramo said, Let's see what happens on Monday and if necessary, a heart to heart. The government for its part argued that the juror with eyes closed might still be listening....

   Earlier on April 26 the lawyer for Christian Dawkins mocked government witness Marty Blazer for his lack of knowledge about basketball recruit rules and got Blazer to answer questions about a Creighton player named Marcus Phillips who never, he then revealed, played for Creighton. There was an immediate sidebar with Judge Edgardo Ramos, then soon thereafter a five minute break. Or breakdown, fast break. See @SDNYLIVE.

On April 25 a lawyer for Merl Code started to cross examine government witness Marty Blazer. Blazer insisted on called Merl "Merrill," leading to him being asked if he knew Merl Code at all. Blazer began paying Lamont Evans, for whom the overall case is named, in April or May 2016, and only met Merl or Merrill Code in June 2017. That's what things ended for the day, with Code's lawyer being told an objection to his questions had only been sustained as to form. It will continue on April 26; watch @SDNYLIVE's feed.

Earlier on April 25 the government played for the jury video tapes of Christian Dawkins with Marty Blazer and Tony Bland of University of Southern California, along with an undercover agent pixelated and obscured. From the witness stand Blazer said Dawkins told Jeff that Bland "needs $13,000," tying it to "grassroots player" Marvin Bagley. It got more specific: if they could get Bagley, a slew of low first round NBA draft picks would follow, they would have to hire underlings. Next the government turned to Preston Murphy of Creighton, who Blazer said needed $6,000. This after, on video, a white envelope said to contain cash changed hands. In the back of the courtroom other Assistant US Attorneys were watching -- while across the street in 40 Foley Square, one arrived late for a 12:30 sentencing before Judge Alison Nathan, now postponed to April 26. We'll have more on this.

 On April 24 Blazer still on direct examination interpreted audio recordings for the jury, for example that head coaches' wives soon after the promotion from assistant coach get better clothes "and surgury." On the role of assistant coaches he gave the example of Boston Celtics player P.J. Dozier while at University of South Carolina dealing much more with assistant Lamont Evans than with the head coach. Objections were dealt with crisply: "Objection - foundation. "Overrule." "Thank you, your Honor."

  On April 23 the defense lawyer for Christian Dawkins told the jury that Dawkins told Book Richardson "I'm Gucci" then translated that as "I'm good" and don't need money. The lawyer for Merl Code said Code told the FBI's undercover yachtsman NOT to pay money to his coaches, before traveling to the Las Vegas meeting. The government doggedly read stipulations into the record and called their first witness, Chance Miller of University of South Carolina (and New York Law School before that). We'll have more on the trial - watch this site and see the @SDNYLIVE feed, here.

On April 22 SDNY Judge Edgardo Ramos completed jury selection with Merl Code and Christian Dawkins in large courtroom 23B. Forteen jurors - including two alternates - were selected, and then led off to the jury room for orientation. Judge Ramos then asked the government who will be its witnesses on April 23, after opening statements. The answer: Chance Miller who works in compliance for South Carolina, with direct examination anticipated for an hour, then Marty Blazer for the beginning of eight to ten hours of direct. The defense said there something they aim to raise on the morning of April 23, while the jurors as Judge Ramos put it have bagel but no omelet station, but that they all need to confer to plan how to raise it. Jude Ramos said he looks forward to it. So do we. As he'd previewed at the April 19 final pre-trial conference, Judge Ramos asked prospective jurors if they had any preconceived notions of Adidas or Nike or Under Armour, as well as standard questions about tax disputes, search warrants and cooperating witnesses. Inner City Press was in the courtroom; other media, it seemed, will come later in the afternoon or tomorrow when the opening statements take place.

  The U.S. Attorney for the SDNY in connection with the April 19 final pre-trial conference before the April 22 jury selection for Merl Code and Christian Dawkins argued AGAINST the case looking into wider NCAA corruption, through compelled testimony by LSU coach Will Wade and Arizona coach Sean Miller. At best, the U.S. Attorney to ensure most effective prosecution of Dawkins and Code does not want to the case to "go big" into wider corruption.     

But this issue arose in the U.S. Attorney's Office's UN corruption cases too. Then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara when he indicted Chinese businessman Ng Lap Seng said the case would show whether bribery is business as usual at the UN. Then his Office cut deals with Dominican Ambassador Francis Lorenzo and businesswoman Sheri Yan, and never pursued the ongoing corruption at the UN. Ng, and only Ng, was convicted.   

The China Energy Fund Committee's Patrick Ho openly used the UN General Assembly to bribe the body's then-president Sam Kutesa; CEFC tried to buy the oil company of Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Foundation which paid money to current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

  But the U.S. Attorney's Office only went after Ho, cutting a deal with also-briber Cheikh Gadio and merely getting the testimony of bribee former PGA Vuk Jeremic. And so the UN continues, under Guterres, to become ever more corrupt.    

Will it be the same with the NCAA and its March Madness? With the follow up on the Mueller report? Inner City Press, which while still banned from the UN by Guterres continues to pursue the corruption left and growing in the UN (see documentary here), will be covering the Code and Dawkins NCAA trial before SDNY Judge Edgardo Ramos from April 22, and the range of prosecutions in the SDNY where the U.S. Attorney's office goes hard against lower down street level dealers while the cancers spread. Watch this site.

UN Guterres Polluting Dinner Party With Motors Running. Corrupting Swede...

As UN Guterres With China Paymasters His Mansion Has Visitors In Luxury ...

UN of Guterres Claims Will Monitor No Show Sycophants As It Bans Inner City Press 297th Day

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 27 – How corrupt and hypocritical is the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres? So much so that after cultivating a press corps including no-show sycophants while banning the Press which asks questions, now his UN on April 26 has said the sycophants have to swipe in. They don't have to produce any articles or, God forbid, questions UN corruption. (On which, April 25 Inner City Press interview, from 44:40.)

But Guterres' team has sent the below, including to no-shows Giampaolo Pioli and others, on which Inner City Press banned now 297 days for questioning Guterres' corruption on China and failure on Cameroon will be following up, beyond the Periscope videos it streamed to show the abuse before Guterres and Alison Smale had it roughs up, ousted and banned: "From: Tal Mekel, mekel [at] un.orgDate: Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 2:10 PM Subject: Note on attendance To:    Dear resident correspondents,  As you know, MALU is responsible for ensuring the offices assigned to media outlets are being used in accordance with the requirements and agreements (on average 2-3 times a week).  To that end, we have long been monitoring by visiting the offices at various times of day.  Due to the unpopularity of these check-ins, we plan to implement a less intrusive system, which we believe will be better for all parties.  In the next few weeks, we will place several card readers for use of resident correspondents on the 3rd and 4th floors, and in the MALU office.  These readers are completely separate from the security access system. However, we will still be able to use the UN ID to swipe, for your convenience. Your IDs will need to be registered by MALU once a year, upon renewal of the pass.  We don’t expect correspondents to swipe every time you arrive or leave UNHQ – swiping once during the day will suffice to demonstrate you were at UNHQ.  The devices will only register basic information about time of swipe, which will only be seen by MALU.  The goal is not to monitor movements, but just to help verify over a period of time that journalists with offices, or are on the wait-list, are fulfilling their obligations.  This will help us allocate office space equitably.  We will update you in the coming days to register the IDs. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.  Have a nice weekend, Tal     Tal Mekel  Chief, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit  Department of Global Communications  United Nations  Room S-250." 

Inner City Press is informed that, for once, there is push back. Raghida Dergham who brags about never having to go to the UN is predicted to be up in arms, just as she protested above Mekel and got to keep a solo office S315 though she never goes. Then there's the former UN Correspondents Association (1986) president and Egyptian state correspondent, Sanaa Youssef of Akbar al Youm to whom the UN gave Inner City Press' shared work space but who has yet to ask a single question. And another former UNCA president Giampaoli Pioli, who promised to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN for its accurate reporting on his conflict of interest in renting one of his Manhattan apartments to Sri Lanka's Ambassador and alleged war criminal (in the white flag killings case) Palitha Kohona then giving a "UN screening" to his propaganda film, rarely comes in. He still maintains S-422A-a, just as one of his henchmen has S-348B (there are more). We'll have more - will the UN, which claimed it threw Inner City Press out for daring to report on the UN Budget Committee when it actually met, at 10 pm, follow through on this? Watch this site.

   In the midst of Inner City Press' questioningin 2018 about Guterres' links to now convicted UN bribery Patrick Ho's China Energy Fund Committee and Guterres' failures on Cameroonand elsewhere, his UN Security twice roughed up Inner City Press on June 22 and July 3, 2018. 

Then after Inner City Press filed a New York Police Department complaint against the UN and its Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, none of its written questions to UN Security chief Peter Drennen and Guterres were answered. There are no due process rights for journalists in the UN of Guterres. On April 15, a year minus a day since the UN accredited Inner City Press on 16 April 2018, Inner City Press submitted a formal application and letter for re-accreditation, including in light of the guilty verdict and sentencing against Patrick Ho of CEFC (video here), financial links to which Guterres has failed to disclose and has for 287days sought to censor to conceal. 

On the morning of April 17, without any reasoning or explanation, this: "Greetings Matthew LEE from ICP     INNER CITY PRESS,  Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M66561081, has been declined." Just as there was no hearing, noaction on assault by UN DSS Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, and not appeals process, no reasons. Absolute lawless corruption.

The letter was sent to Guterres, his USG Alison Smale and her "personal assistant"Alison Corbet, his chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti and her staffer Eihab Omaish, his Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed and her chief of staff Nelson Muffuh, as well as to PGA Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, her chief of staff  KwabenaOseidanquah, her spokesperson Monica Grayley and staffers Nadia Kalb and Raquel Martins, to MALU chief Tal Mekel and others still to be named  along with a simple request for confirmation of receipt. Even this they had not done, a full 38 hours later. From what's been submitted: "A year ago on 16 April 2018 I was re-accredited to enter and cover the United Nations, as for many years before. Then I asked more and more questions about the Patrick Ho / CEFC China Energy UN bribery scandal, about the Secretary General, about Cameroon - and on 22 June 2018 I was pushed out of the UN Visitors Lobby while other non-resident correspondents remained there.    On 3 July 2018 as I covered the UN Budget Committee meetings as I have for years, I was physically roughed up by UN DSS Lt Ronald Dobbins and another who refused to give his name. On July 5 I was told I could not enter the UN and this remains the case, with no hearing and no appeal.     Now just less than a year since I was accredited, before the above and other facts of record, I am submitting this formal application for accreditation which you grant to correspondents who report far less, and far less critically, on the UN than Inner City Press.    It is particularly imperative that Inner City Press be allowed to enter and attend the noon briefing as hundreds of my questions have gone unanswered despite USG Smale's assurance to UNSR David Kaye, and Spokesman Dujarric's on camera assurance.     

Beyond the hundreds of articles covering the UN since the arbitrary ouster of 3 July 2018, for the record:  March 29, 2019, Hong Kong TV documentary on Patrick Ho CEFC, Inner City Press in front of UN and SDNY...

   For years Guterres received money as a board member of the Calouste Galbenkian Foundation, which despite its name is the 100% owner of Partex Oil and Gas. Partex has operations in Angola, Abu Dhabi, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Oman and Portugal. It was to a Portuguese court that Guterres, while justifying no listing some of his income, disclosed in 2016 that he was paid at least € 2735 per month for his position with the Gulbenkian Foundation.
   But while a now deleted Foundation web page (archived here) stated that Guterres continued with Gulbenkian into 2018, Guterres did not list it on his most recent, and so far lone, UN Public Financial Disclosure, which covered 2016 ("Disclosing financial and other interests for the 2016 reporting year"). 

  So why did Guterres disclose his position with the Club of Madrid, but not with the Gulbenkian Foundation / Partex Oil and Gas?  Inner City Press has a right to re-enter and pursue these questions.

In SDNY Ketamine Defendant Gets Mandarin Interpreter and Medical Order But No Bail Material Witness

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Periscope

SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 26 – A defendant indicted for ketamine, with a Mandarin interpreter, was arraigned Friday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate's courtroom, presided over by this week by retiring Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman. 

The defendant was rail thin; his Federal Defender lawyer asked for a medical order which was the subject of a sidebar discussion also involving the Assistant US Attorney and a US Marshal, who went in and out of the cellblock. "What we discussed, you take it once aday?" Judge Pitman asked. The answer was yes, and that went into the medical order. 

Just before, another drug defendant Mr. Lopez appeared with private counsel, whom he refered to when Judge Pitman asked as his friend. Later a man in a checkered shirt made afast appearance to have a free lawyer appointed - then followed the U.S. Attorneys into their office on the fifth floor. Apparently a material or cooperating witness, though nothing was said of it in open court. The same lawyer was appointed to represent a Mr. Brito. Thus ended the SDNY week - see @SDNYLIVE.

Earlier in the week on April 23, two defendants arrested at Newark International Airport for an advance fee scheme, essentially predatory lending, were presented before Judge Pitman. One of them, Omar Young of 107 West Fourth Street, Granton, Wisconsin, was given a free / publicly funded lawyer despite having $215,000 in a business checking account. The other, a Mister Perlman of northern Georgia, has $161,000 in the bank but his counsel, from the white shoe firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, argued that he should be given a free lawyer -and that the whole proceeding should be sealed. But it was held in open court, and Inner City Press was there, albeit the only media present. Why is a corporate law firm like Sullivan & Cromwell representing a predatory lender -- alleged, of course -- and arguing they should be paid, and it should be sealed? Inner City Press aims to have more on this case. For now we note that in the open court proceeding it was said that no hotel can be found in or around New York City for less than $250 to $300 a night, and each defendant was allowed while getting publicly funded counsel to spend $2000 a week while in New York. That's $102,000 a week, deemed reasonable by the court and Sullivan & Cromwell, in a District where many families don't make that in a decade. Inner City Press will have more on this.

   Earlier on April 23, also by Judge Pitman, a defendant accused of selling fake IDs over the Dark Net was told to stop using that platform while given bail on April 23. The defendant, apparently also an Italian citizen and arestaurant consultant, has social media showing his shooting guns and has, according to the government, purchased "SWAT-ing" services (Google it). But Judge Pitman told him not to use the TOR net, while asking rhetorically if they even make phones anymore without the Internet, other than those advertised in the backpages of AARP Magazine. Indeed.

Earlier on April 23 a man was denied bail after naming his Instagram account "Catch Me If You Can."  A Mister Crowder, wearing a "World Sacrifice Tour" t-shirt, was requesting bail. But Judge Pitman asked about the naming of his Instagram account, and the two excuses given, that it was named after a Leo DiCaprio movie ("I've seen it," Judge Pitman said) and that he later changed "if you can" to "if you could," were unavailing. The marshals took him back into the cell block Judge Pitman said to close the door to, less than an hour before affluent opioids distributor Laurence Doud was released on $500,000 bail and walked with his lawyer Mister Gottlieb across Foley Square with Inner City Press asking questions, Periscope video here. We'll have more on this. 

Back on April 18 a defendant pled guilty to selling marijuana and having a gun in Manhattan, to a plea agreement specifying 37 to 46 months. Magistrate Judge Moses asked the defendant if he had written his allocation himself. Sporting an ACE bandage on his right wrist, he said Yes. Moments later a Mr. Butler,with neck tattoo, stepping up with a financial affidavit and a lawyer, to be appointed as he is a material witness. So you work construction? Judge Moses asked. The answer was yes, and that it was seasonal - he was not going to work tonight because it was going to pour rain. Judge Moses asked, Is it? And by 6 pm, there was still no rain. But her week was over, and not uninteresting, including disputes with both the Federal Defenders and, less so, with the government. We will continue to cover this.

A defendant accused in New York courts of attempted murder but released because not indicted in six days was denied bail on April 17 by SDNY Magistrate Judge Moses  after a contentious 5 p.m. proceeding with Inner City Press the only media present. The Federal Defender argued that the NY ADA's inability to indict within the six day time frame of NY CPLR 3030 meant there really is no evidence. The Federal Assistant U.S. Attorney said she had called her state counterpart who assured they are investigating. Federal Magistrate Judge Moses said she would not credit anything not actually before the court - but that attempted murder sounds serious. The defendant is being remanded and held, it seems, until a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Keenan. Inner City Press will cover that as well.