In SDNY Pro Se Check Cashing Fraud Defendant Crosses FBI Agent About Watching Him

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon, Periscope

SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 7 – A defendant charged with fraudulently cashing checks in many U.S. states appeared for trial beginning May 6 representing himself, pro se, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York courtroom of Judge Kevin Castel. On May 6 the jury was selected, with Marko Stasiv several times making use of the Ukrainian language interpreters on hand. At day's end Stasiv asked for a list of the names of the jurors.

  On May 7 Stasiv conducted cross examination of FBI Agent Fox, who had a box of seized cell phones, ID and bank cards in front of her. Stasiv asked Agent Fox, Did you observe me in the check cashing store? No, she had not. 

He questioned her about  the dates of the complaint and the warrant but she said she was not part of that process. One of the three Assistant U.S. Attorneys facing off against Stasiv -- they are Janis Echenberg, Noah Falk and Jonathan Rebold -- objected but Stasiv, now hopping around on a cane, prevailed. Defendant's Exhibits A and B are now part of the record. 

  Also now part of the record are IDs belong to some of those charged along with Stasiv in the scheme, including Gennady Toporov and Mikhail Dikler.  The government says that two will testify against Stasiv, among a total of 28 government witnesses. Will the jury view this as overkill? Could rooting for the underdog result in a verdict of not guilty? More on Patreon, here.

  At day's end, after a defrauded check cashing CEO brought up from Georgia to testify, Stasiv was put back into shackles and taken back to the MCC. Some one remarks, For the U.S. Attorney's office, there is only downside here. Inner City Press covering and amplifying this trial, which so far is akin to watching a person try to conduct brain surgery on themselves while talking. The case is U.S. v Stasiv, 18-cr-259 (Castel). Watch this site.

 On Saturday May 4 Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg wrote to Judge Castel with new arguments and information, noting that it could not be delivered to defendant Stasiv in the MCC. Inner City Press will be covering this trial - watch this site. 

  Back in late April, Judge Castel told the government to make the 3500 material and other discovery available right away or he'll fashion a remedy they will not like. In other fashion news, Judge Castel has signed an order for Stasiv to be appropriately dressed during his trial. Inner City Press and @SDNYLIVEwill be there - watch this site, and that feed.

On April 23, two defendants arrested at Newark International Airport for an advance fee scheme, essentially predatory lending, were presented late  in the SDNY arraignments courtroom, presided over by that week by retiring Magistrate Judge Henry 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. 

Federal Trial of Slip and Fall Fraud Raises Issues of Bloods Gang, Nine Eleven and Low Hanging Fruit

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon, Periscope

SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 7 – The U.S. government put three men on trial on May 7 for staged slip and fall accidents and fraudulent lawsuits. But from its first day the trial raised issues about Bloods gang culture, the prosecutors' propensity to use conflicted criminals as witness to go after low hanging fruit, and the potential of having witnessed the 9/11/01 attacks to sway a jury.   

 In open arguments before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Sidney H. Stein, the lawyer for incarcerated defendant Bryan Duncan, Ikeisha T. Al-Shabazz, argued that U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman's office is going after the "low hanging fruit." 

 Berman's Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Rothman objected to the phrase, or perhaps only the word "hanging." Judge Stein sustained the objection, saying "I don't even know what that means," and told Ms. Al-Shabazz to move on.     

Likewise when Mitchell Dinnerstein, lawyer for defendant Robert Locust, asked of one of the lawyers involved in the slip and fall lawsuit, "Where's George?" Judge Stein stopped him and told the jury, "What law enforcement does is not of concern to this case."  

Later Judge Stein told Dinnerstein, with the jury out on a ten minute break, "You are not in the good graces of the court. I'm surprised at you." He told the group of seven lawyers that it had been a "very sloppy opening" and then asked why the witnesses mentioned in motions filed with him were not named.    

One of the witnesses whose WhatsApp messages with Duncan will be admitted into evidence has a pattern, Ms. Al-Shabazz argued, of replacing all c's with k's. She filed with Judge Stein a copy of a New York City Police Department "General Gang Rules" for the Bloods, which lists as Rule 26 "Always cross out your C's" - because Crips begins with C. Judge Stein said he will allow it.    

Another witness with mental issues relates those back to what he saw on September 11, 2001. The defense says this will sway the jury to the witness' side. On these and other questions, Judge Stein said the scope of cross examination will be decided as the trial goes forward. 

Judge Stein told the jury not to read press coverage about the case, while predicting there would be no press coverage of it. But why then are there three separate Assistant U.S. Attorneys on the case, two marshals shepherding Duncan in and out of the courtroom even during breaks, and rulings to keep out information about the lawyers and funding companies behind this slip and fall fraud scheme? Inner City Press will continue to cover this trial. More on Patreon, here. The case is U.S. v. Bryan Duncan, et al., 18-cr-00289 (Stein).

Cyber Hacking From Brazil Yields Guilty Plea in SDNY Where Bangladesh Bank Says Hearing In Six Months

By Matthew Russell Lee

FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, February 4 – A cyber hacking of a New York financial institution by a fraudster from Brazil was highlighted on February 4 by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, days after the filing of a much larger civil suit about the hacking of the Bangladeshi Central Bank, a case that will apparently not be heard for six months, see below. The Brazil case involved $750,000; the Bangladesh Bank hack began just under $1 billion, with tens of millions still missing.

On February 4 it was announced that "Marcos Elias, a Brazilian citizen and resident, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $750,000 at financial institutions headquartered in Manhattan using false representations and the stolen identities of Brazilian account holders at those institutions.  ELIAS was extradited from Switzerland to the Southern District of New York on August 28, 2018, and entered his pleas of guilty today in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.  Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “As he admitted today, Marcos Elias engaged in a sophisticated fraud scheme from Brazil to steal over $750,000 from a Manhattan financial institution.  He committed this truly international crime through a front company in Panama, a bank account in Luxembourg, and by using the stolen identity of a Brazilian account holder.  Elias now awaits sentencing for his crimes.” Inner City Press will cover that - and this:  the Bangladesh Central Bank was hacked for $81 million in February 2016, on January 31 sued in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case is Bangladesh Bank v Rizal Commercial Banking Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-00983. On February 3 in Dhaka Bangladesh Bank's lawyer Ajmalul Hossain said it could take three years to recover the money. The Bank's deputy governor Abu Hena Razee Hasan said those being accused -- in the civil not criminal suit -- include three Chinese nationals. Ajmalul Hossain said the Bank is seeking its hacked million plus interest and its expenses in the case. He said US Federal Reserve will extend its full support and that SWIFT, the international money transfer network, also assured of providing all the necessary cooperation in recovering the hacked money.  The Philippines returned $14.54 million in November 2016, so $66.46 million has yet to be retrieved. Now defendant RCBC Bank of the Philippines has hired the Quinn Emanuel law firm to defend it, and it already fighting back in words. RCBC’s lead counsel on the SDNY case, Tai-Heng Cheng, said:  “This is nothing more than a thinly veiled PR campaign disguised as a lawsuit. Based on what we have heard this suit is completely baseless. If the Bank of Bangladesh was serious about recovering the money, they would have pursued their claims three years ago and not wait until days before the statute of limitations. Not only are the allegations false, they don’t have the right to file here since none of the defendants are in the US." But it seems the funds were transferred to and through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And as Inner City Press reported in the US v. Patrick Ho case last year, the wiring of funds through New York can confer jurisdiction. Inner City Press will be covering this case. The first paragraph of the 103 page complaint reads, "This litigation involves a massive, multi-year conspiracy to carry out one of the largest banks heists in modern history right here in New York City. On February 4, 2016, thieves reached into a bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“New York Fed”) and stole approximately $101 million (out of the nearly $1 billion they attempted to steal). The bank account was held for the benefit of Bangladesh Bank, which is Bangladesh’s Central Bank. Bangladesh Bank has had a 45-year banking relationship under which it has placed its international reserves with the New York Fed. The New York Fed is a critical component of the United States’ central banking system and its link to the international financial system." Bangladesh's lawyers on the case are "COZEN O’CONNOR John J. Sullivan, Esq.  Jesse Loffler, Esq. Yehudah Gordon, Esq." We'll have more on this.

Debaprasad Debnath, a general manager at the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Joint Director Mohammad Abdur Rab and Account and Budgeting Department General Manager Zakir Hossain all left Dhaka to head to New York, for the filing of the lawsuit, which Inner City Press will be following. 

They say the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which on January 29 was instructed by the US State Department to allow Juan Guaido to access Venezuelan accounts, will be helping its Bangladeshi counterpart to get to the bottom of the hack.  Those eyed include Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation or RCBC and some of its officials, and Philrem Service Corporation, casino owners and beneficiaries. Ajmalul Hossain QC, a lawyer for the central bank, is with them to file the case. 

It is an interesting twist on the SDNY as venue for the money laundering and FCPA prosecution of Patrick Ho of CEFC for bribery in Chad and to Uganda - in this case, too, the money flowed through New York. Inner City Press intends to cover the case.