Banca IMI Trader Meyers Pleads Guilty And Will Cooperate In DOJ Probe of Cozy ADR Community

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 27 – The US  quietly filed a criminal antitrust case against Banca IMI trader Larry D. Meyers - who quietly pled guilty and agreed to cooperate on June 27 before Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Inner City Press can report.

  The case involves violations with the Sherman Act with respect to American Depository Receipts. It is a quiet part of a larger case. On June 27 the representative of DOJ's Antitrust Division said Meyers will get a 5K1.1 letter if he fully cooperates. She then said the sentencing could be set for October 7 at 2:30 pm.  So will all of the cooperation be by then?

  Judge Engelmayer asked Meyers to explain what he did. Meyers, going beyond the script prepared for him by his new lawyer Mr. Alvarez, said that only a few had access to the pre-release ADRs and had become a "cozy community." He said, "We became too friendly." Not anymore...

  The plea almost got delayed again because Meyers old lawyer had not yet formally withdrawn; Judge Engelmayer said a Curcio hearing might be needed then decided not. He asked Ms. Brown of DOJ if anything was needed with regard to the transcript, presumably to seal it. 

  We don't think that's necessary, Ms. Brown told Judge Engelmayer. So the cooperation is entirely public now, in this cozy community. Inner City Press will continue to follow these cases and others in the SDNY: see @InnerCityPress and the new @SDNYLIVE.

   Back on 9 May 2019 DOJ Antitrust Division criminal chief James J. Fredricks signed a "Notice of Intent to File An Information" against Meyers. Through so-called "Wheel B" it was assigned to SDNY Judge Engelmayer, by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang.

 On June 5 - it is not clear where -  Meyers and his attorney Dan Portnov "waive[d] in open court prosecution by indictment and consent[ed] that the proceeding may be by information instead of by indictment."

   That way, instead of through the more public Magistrates Court, Meyers' presentment was before Judge Engelmayer, with a Docket Number listed as "19-CR- [blank]," quickly released on $100,000 bond, travel restricted to the US and Ireland unlike most defendants confined to two or three US Districts.

  This is the VIP aisle of indictments, with the DOJ helping to avoid any possible perp walk.

  And so it was that while the week's SDNY "Civil and Criminal Proceedings Calendar" for the week of 06/17/19 listed on June 19 at 5 pm a plea before Judge Engelmayer in USA v. Meyers, 19-cr-[blank], the courtroom of Judge Engelmayer where Inner City Press had been earlier in the day on a Hobbs Act robbery trialwas empty. 

  There was no sign on the door explaining why, as was done for example on the door of Judge Deborah Batts about Michael Avenatti. There are VIP lines, and vip lines. Watch this site - and for more, see its Patreon, here. 

At UNDP, Carlos Slim Praises Competition After $1B Antitrust Fine, As With Bill Gates, UN Likes Monopolists

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- Fresh off a $1 billion fine for monopolization in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helu appeared Friday with the UN Development Program talking about economic development in Latin America.

Inner City Press asked Slim about the case, and the place of antitrust law and competition in economic development. Slim cut the question off and launched into an underdog story, of having taken on AT&T, MCI / Worldcom, Verizon.

Yes, he acknowledged, there are places where his company comtrols 100% of the market. He said this could be attributed to who had the better and more extensive network.

Many who attended his press conference at UNDP wondered why Carlos Slim would come to the UN at this time. But this is not his first or only connection. Already, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named him to a climate change advisory panel.

Mexico and climate change seem to together in the eyes of the UN system. As Inner City Press exclusively reported, the Latin American head of state left unnamed by UN Environment Program in the run up to its “Champions of the Environmental” award ceremony on May 10 is president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.

After Inner City Press fruitlessly asked Slim about the case and $1 billion antitrust fine, a UNDP staff came over and pointed out that Bill Gates was charged with similar monopolization. It occurs that the UN has a thing for monopolists. Inner City Press raised the same questions about Gates, for example when an Under Secretary General's brother held an event at the UN as “Microsoft's Ambassador to Africa.”

Friday's press conference, held in connection with the Fourth Ministerial Forum on Development in Latin America, was supposed to include Viviana Caro, Minister of Development Planning of Bolivia -- but did not.

Alongside Carlos Slim was Angelino Garzón, Vice President of Colombia, who jumped in to say that monopolies must be opposed by governments. One wanted to ask, by $1 billion fines? But the press conference was over.

Serving as moderator was UNDP's chief for Latin America Heraldo Munoz. Before going to UNDP he as Chile's Permanent Representative to the UN, and chaired a UN inquiry into the murder of Benazir Bhutto. When the report was released, he held a press conference, something that has not been done by the more recent UN panels on Sri Lanka war crimes and then cholera in Haiti. And so it goes at the UN.

On Food Speculation, UN's Expert Says Nothing's Being Done, S. Korean Land Grabs from Madagascar to Sudan, Brazil on Ethanol

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unhr1food102109.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 21 -- After many speeches at the UN about the need to crack down on financial speculation in food, nothing has been done, the UN's expert on the right to food told Inner City Press on Wednesday.

Olivier de Schutter, a Belgian law professor just back from a visit to Brazil about, among other things, the loss of land for food to ethanol, replied that "nothing is moving at the inter-governmental level." This despite a statement by the G-20 in April favoring the regulation of hedge funds which present systemic risk. The argument is that commodities index funds which speculate in food present systemic risk to net food importing countries. But nothing has been done.

De Schutter spoke about the monopolization of the seed industry, and made a slew of recommendations for governments. The three top monopolizers -- Monsanto, Dupont and the Swiss-based Syngenta -- are all members of the UN Global Compact, and claim to comply with human rights. De Schutter pointed out the antitrust law is directed as national and not global or subnational markets. It is all very heady but one wonders what effect it has.

Brazil might be one of de Schutter's claims to impact. He spoke glowingly of President Lula, saying that Brazil has said that only 19% of land can be used for sugar cane for ethanol, and has committed to monitor labor rights. But what about, for example, Indonesia and Malaysia?

After De Schutter's briefing, Inner City Press asked his staffer for an update on the proposed land grab in Madagascar by South Korea based Daewoo, which was reputed after the coup in that country. De Schutter had been scheduled to visit, but it was put off by the coup. The same thing happened in Honduras. So perhaps De Schutter does have an effect after all, mused one wag.

Footnote: immediately after De Schutter's briefing, the UN's Haile Menkerios was scheduled to speak to the Press about Madagascar. While the UN usually compartmentalizes its work such that a rapporteur looks at land grabs, while the Secretariat remains on "political affairs" narrowly defined, this land grab played a role in the change of government. Now it's said the South Korean deal is being pursued from India, while South Korea appears to have moved on to 690,000 hectares in Sudan. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unhr1food102109.html