Weigard and Akhavan Charged With $100M Pot Scam Before January Trial Argue To Dismiss

By Matthew Russell Lee, PatreonBBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - The Source

SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 27 – Ruben Weigand and Hamid Akhavan are charged with a "scheme to deceive US banks into processing in excess of $100 million for marijuana products."

 On April 28, Weigand had a proceeding before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff, covered by Inner City Press, below. Since then Inner City Press has been digging into the possible Wirecard link.

 On July 27, Judge Rakoff held an oral argument on motions to dismiss, and motions to suppress, with a trial scheduled for January 2021. Inner City Press live tweeted it:

Judge Rakoff expressing frustration at counsel going over old ground, says "I have another matter at noon." Lawyer: If transaction occurred by debit card, there's no damage to the bank, a sine quo non of bank fraud.

 Defense lawyer: The banks received a lot of money for these transactions. There was no harm to them. Judge Rakoff: What you're saying is that when they deceived the banks, all they cheated the banks out of was some policy the banks wanted to adhere to

AUSA: It is not clear that the bank fraud statue is a prosecutor's Stradivarius. In the recent case of Attila, harm is a not a factor. The cheating in this case is obtaining the bank's own money through pretense. The analysis can end right there

Judge Rakoff: Let me hear from co-defendant's counsel.

William Burck of Quinn Emmanuel for Akhavan: There has to be a risk of loss to the bank for bank fraud.

Judge Rakoff: I was surprised that no one referred to the civil RICO cases that have address this issue

 Judge Rakoff: There was a case in the 5th Circuit, [or the 11th], after an airline takeover, to avoid unionization, the public was told that Continental Airlines was not as safe as Eastern had been. The allegation was that the pilot deceived the public

AUSA (sounds like Dimase) - these are more like Rule 29 motions, arguments about Visa and Master Card, let the jury decide. The indictment is sufficient.

Judge Rakoff: I have read your briefs. And I have other matters today.

AUSA: Conflating loss and harm is a mistake

Judge Rakoff: Let's turn to the motions to suppress. 

Weigand's lawyer: The warrants didn't allege that the devices seized were being used for the scheme.

Judge Rakoff: I'd like to hear from the government.

AUSA Nicholas Folly: We only had to show probability... The evidence in the affidavit came from the cell phone of the cooperating witness.  

Judge Rakoff: I'll issue an omnibus ruling by the end of August; trial now set for January.

 Weigand since he has money, unlike many SDNY defendants, on April 28 already had high powered lawyers from Wilson Sonsini. On April 28 they demanded a bill of particulars. 

  Judge Rakoff pushed back, setting a tight schedule for that: May 12, May 18 and he'll rule by May 20.

  But these high powered lawyers have a grueling trial schedule for other clients, from the Central District of California and elsewhere.

So Judge Rakoff agreed to a trial in December 2020, to be finished before Christmas. Inner City Press will cover it. The case is US v. Weigand, 20-cr-188 (Rakoff). 

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In Inner City Press Scoop on UNsexploitation Driver Cunillera 2 Weeks Later Haq Admits 3d Man

By Matthew Russell Lee, Audio, PatreonGermany - Honduras - UN Q - Tel Aviv Austria

UN GATE, July 27 – The United Nations claims to have a zero tolerance for sexual exploitation by its staff and peacekeepers, but routinely covers up their abuses including the rape of children, withholding basic information which was provided to the Press under Ban Ki-moon but not now under Antonio Guterres. 

   Inner City Press, which Guterres has banned from the UN for 755 days as it asks about these and his abuses, on June 23 received from outraged UN whistleblowers video of sexual exploitation, they said, in a white UN-marked vehicle, here.  Now Instagram, Facebook.

  Inner City Press named to the UN the two men in the UN van: Michael Antoine and Ray Milan. The UN did not answer, see below.

  After the UN told others, misleadingly, that it had disciplined two men, Inner City Press reported this about the third man, the driver: "The driver works in Procurement for UNTSO." Procurement indeed. What about the driver was an obvious question not pursued by the in-house bought off UN press corpse. But Inner City Press is pursuing it.

  After publishing the above, multiple sources contacted Inner City Press with the name of the driver: Juan Carlos Cunillera. Here is in on an UNTSO procurement form; he previously worked for the UN in Haiti, where sex exploitation morphed into the killing of 10,000 Haitians by the UN.

 On July 17 Guterres' Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq, hired through nepotism due to his UNDP economist father, lied on camera. He said the leave - with education grants and insurance - of two of the three men in the 4x4 was "fast action." He did not mention that he has ignored and censored written questions from Inner City Press about the third man - the actual procurer.

Inner City Press continued reported: the procurement driver Juan Carlos Cunillera comes from the Dominican Republic - a member of the UN Security Council.

 Now after more than two weeks on July 27 Farhan Haq hours after Inner City Press was removed from the UN's briefing on COVID-19 and Cities whispered in his briefing, with no follow up by those allowed in, that a third man - who he did not name - was also put on leave without pay by UNTSO. Cunillera will still get insurance and education grant, and Farhan Haq is sinking lower and lower. We will have more on this.

  On July 13, 14 and 15 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his deputy Amina J. Mohammed and spokespeople, including Sophie Boudre and Julie Hylton at UNTSO on deadline: "Inner City Press is reliably involved the driver was Juan Carlos Cunillera of UNTSO. Given his presence, and other irregularities, immediately explain why there are only two suspended and not three, and how this is not a cover up.  ALSO IMMEDIATELY DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN, AS TO THIS CASE, the UN's "Carlog" technology, "used for driver authentication (swipe card used in the Carlog device before ignition)." It is important you answer about the UN's publicly funded (but defrauded) Carlog technology and its role in this cover up."

 But the UN refused to answer. Now Inner City Press from multiple sources can report that it was Ray Milan who used his ID to start the UN vehicle - but that, contrary to policy, Juan Carlos Cunillera took the wheel. They were, so to speak, taking turns. And Antonio Guterres is covering this up.  He should resign.

On July 2, as Inner City Press asked a question, here, at the non-UN press conference on the sex trafficking indictment of Ghislaine Maxwell (who held a UN press conference in Dujarric's room, then was denied bail on July 14), this:

"the two staff members have been placed on Administrative Leave Without Pay, pending the results and conclusion of the ongoing OIOS investigation."  This was (intentionally) misreported by Xinhua and others as a strong UN action, "discipline." It is not, even by the UN's own terms, in ST/AI/2017/1 and ALWOP  Section 11"

 Inner City Press has exclusively published audio of OIOS' Ben Swanson saying that one of Guterres' Assistant Secretaries General thrust his hand down the pants of a female staffer - and Guterres, "a politician," said to cover it up. Audio here, here on Patreon.

 Inner City Press will continue to demand re-accreditation. It has been two years, with no appeal, no roadmap, pure corrupt censorship.

  Despite the story now being reported from Austria to Israel to Switzerland, those let in from Al Jazeera and other publications asked nothing. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

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UN Farhan Haq Removes Press From COVID Briefing For Guterres UN Nepotism to the Fore

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video here, Vine here

UN GATE, July 27 -- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment, and for retaliation.

But when Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman and now cover-up man Farhan Haq about recent child rapes by peacekeepers, Haq immediately leaves the WhatsApp space and refuses to answer.

   Now on July 27 Haq is in charge and fully responsible for two weeks, as his corrupt boss and mentor Stephane Dujarric takes an undeserved two week vacation.

It did not begin auspiciously - on July 27 when Inner City Press signed in to a UN briefing on COVID-19 and cities, another Guterres self promotion, in order to ask about Guterres' personal guards violating New York City prohibitions on gyms being open, it was "removed by the host." Photo here; video here.  This is on Haq - and Achim Steiner.

Haq is refusing to provide basic, historically disclosed information about UN sexual exploitation and abuse cases - this despite Haq's road to his gatekeeper position running either through the defunct newspaper the City Sun, or being the son of UNDP economist Mahbub ul Haq. In either case, this is a new low, withholding information about a UN "international" engaging in sexual exploitation in so often mistreated South Sudan - all the more so give Haq's online connections to women's studies in the Garden State. We'll have more on this.

Here's how low: on January 22, Haq promoted for-profit Amazon Prime, video here: "just to flag that tonight the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Amazon Studios will be hosting a film screening of Beautiful Boy.  That will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 January, in other words, tomorrow night, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.  Actor Timothée Chalamet, author David Sheff, and producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will take part in a Q&A following the screening of the film.  Beautiful Boy is based on the best‑selling memoirs from David and Nic Sheff and chronicles the experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.  The film is available on Amazon Prime Video."

That was inappropriate promotion of a for profit service. But it's worse: when Inner City Press which was invited by Amazon went, it was barred and its camera grabbed, here. Haq is a hack.

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After OneCoin Armenta Companies Exposed By Inner City Press Case Unsealed Sentencing Set

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive PatreonBBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - The Source 

SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 25 –  As Inner City Press covered the OneCoin trial in October 2019, a number of names of indicted co-conspirators emerged on which we followed up.

  One of them was Gilbert Armenta, who  recorded Ruja Ignatova. Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for more information; it continues even now to withhold the exhibits it flashed on the screen at trial. Inner City Press had to file a FOIA request; the Department of Justice denies expedited processing.

Now we can report this: the US Attorney's Office gave Armenta his own secret docket number and kept it sealed for three years, until AFTER Inner City Press exclusively reported on Armenta's continuing dubious business activities even while a "cooperator." The case was initially assigned to SDNY Judge Willian H. Pauley III, then moved to Judge Edgardo Ramos - who to his credit has now put an end to continued extensions, and set a sentencing date for October 21, 2020. The unsealed indictment is now on Patreon here.

  The willingness to hide Armenta and the case against him, as he continued dubious business presumably for others, has Inner City Press wondering about these individuals it is researching through links to  Ruja Ignatova's RavenR:

Thomas Christodoulou
Maria Serbina
Joanna Hilary Alinson
Simon John Longworth
Anna Marie Longworth
Robert Henry Rothenberg
Gary Michael Gilford
Nikolaou Nikolaos
Louca Theocharis
Mary Skoullou
Giannakis Tsiannaros
Svitlana Kolesnyk
Cyprus Development Bank
Vladislav Velkov

We'll have more on this.   Here are the Armenta business moves Inner City Press exclusively reported on December 1, 2019, here:

  ESOL B.V. LLC was incorporated on July 8, 2019; the manager is Gilbert Armenta and the agent is Giselle Valentin, both of 500 E. Broward Boulevard, PH 2, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394. See here. And here.

   Armenta's Tblisi, Georgia-based money laundering bank JSC Capital Bank had as its parent a company of exactly this name. See KPMG review of Georgia banking sector here. More on Armenta's ongoing companies on Patreon here.

  Inner City Press asked, on December 1, 2019: Is the US Attorney's Office allowing its cooperator to keep on money laundering? Or looking the other way while whatever cooperation agreement exists is openly violated?
Perhaps these and other quesitons will be answered in connection with Armenta's sentencing in the too long seal case against him. Watch this site.

More on Patreon here.

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On Cameroon Inner City Press Asks UK Pierce Who Cites Arria Meeting As Guterres Censors

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon FB YouTubeBBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Honduras - Source

SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 25 – As more and more civilians have been killed by the Cameroon government of Paul Biya, absentee president for 37 years, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been silent. And the UN Security Council has been failing, too.

 On July 24, Inner City Press asked the UK's former UN Ambassador - now Ambassador in DC - Karen Pierce, "Why during your tenure at the UN did the UN Security Council do nothing about the slaughter of Anglophones by Cameroon's ruler Paul Biya? What is the UK doing about it? What do you make of UNSG  Antonio Guterres ' smiling photo-op with Biya?"

  Ambassador Pierce to her credit at least responded: "Cameroon is not on the UN Security Council's agenda, but there have been several serious discussions of events there, held at the UN. The UK has chaired ARRIA meetings on Cameroon and has also sponsored a resolution at the HRC."

  Inner City Press has replied / followed up, "Thanks for your response, but I remember from being in the UN - before being ousted and banned b  Antonio Guterres  on & since 3 July 2018 - that pro-Biya UNOCA Envoy Francois Fall has called"separarists" in British Southern Cameroons as 'extremists.'" We'll have more on this.

Inner City Press was informed by sources in Guterres' own 38th floor office that Guterres had made a deal with Biya's UN Ambassador Tommo Monthe as chair of the UN Budget Committee for administrative favors in exchange for silence on the slaughter or "subduing" of the Anglophone minority.

When Inner City Press asked about it, Guterres used UN Security to rough up Inner City Press right after it interviewed Monthe, and to ban it from entering the UN, 710 days and counting.

 On June 12, while Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric refused all questions from Inner City Press as pro-Biya envoy Francois Fall's briefing resulted in UNSG "Press Elements" read by Nicolas de Riviere of the French Mission that did not mention Cameroon, this: the Cameroon army raided Mbokam, a village in Cameroon's North West region.  Amateur images taken this afternoon show some persons shot to death and buildings razed to ashes.   Unconfirmed reports say 11 persons were killed in the raid.  We'll have more on this.

  So what Cameroon issues is corrupt Guterres blocking? How about his friend Paul Biya arresting people handing out COVID-19 masks? This has been happening since May, with no answer from Guterres or Dujarric to Inner City Press. Now it it in German media - but nothing from the German Mission to the UN, complicit in Guterres' censorship. The UN (and EU) become more corrupted every day. Watch this site.

 On June 2, news that Buea-based journalist Samuel Wazizi a/k/a Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe was killed. According to Equinoxe Television, he died within a few days in detention from wounds and injuries sustained after his arrest - that is, he was killed by Biya's forces. And Guterres' UN has refused each and every question about Cameroon from the Press - Guterres is complicit and corrupt.

 On June 3, 4 and 5 Inner City Press asked Guterres and his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming in writing about the killing of Wazizi - no answer at all. On June 4 Inner City Press put the question to Guterres himself as he went from mansion to Mercedes, here - nothing.

   On April 30 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming questions including about the 14 luxury cars to Biya's cronies - no answer.

  On April 20, Inner City Press asked Dujarric, Guterres and others 21 questions including this: "this morning Inner City Press asked [an NGO often invited into Guterres' UN and which for now gives preference to his UN Censorship Alliance] which said it would be 'highly problematic' if Guterres does not include Cameroon in his CAAC report. Why hasn't he to date? Is he still claiming and taking credit for a ceasefire?"

  Two days, no answer at all. Only this read out by Dujarric from his penthouse apartment: "we acknowledge the commitment of the President of Cameroon to resolve the conflict in the North‑West and South‑West regions through peaceful means." Video on Facebook; YouTube. Guterres is a corrupt censor,

 Now there's widely circulated video  a toddler whose mother was killed in Babanki (Kedjom Ketinguh) in Mezam, in the North West region of Cameroon. Soldiers are responsible, and 10 other civilians have been killed. Meanwhile corrupt Guterres and Catarina Vaz Pinto, the First Lady of Faux Socialism, ran right by Inner City Press loud questions about Cameroon on February 29, into the publicly funded mansion Guterres lives in some of the time. Story here with video. He, and it seems they, are corrupt and complicit.

 Also: one of the witnesses who exposed the Biya government's mass killing at Ngarbuh, Mallam Danjuma has been killed and dumped in Bui by government forces in Kikaikelaki. And from the UN of Guterres? Nothing. This is Guterres' genocide. He has the only press that ask him about it, even from his propaganda speech at NYC's The New School.

This is Guterres' genocide. Watch this site.

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