| Subprime Fraud of
Tricolor Led to SDNY Presser Now
Cites Law Firms for Privilege
Review
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
Aug 21 – Early on December 17
the SDNY US Attorney's Office
announced the unsealing of an
Indictment charging DANIEL
CHU, the founder and former
CEO of Tricolor Holdings LLC,
with orchestrating a
years-long financial crimes
enterprise that defrauded
multiple banks and other
private credit providers - and
an 8:30 am press
conference.
Inner City Press
raced and went, asked two
questions and live tweeted,
here
Clayton:
Systematic fraud that reaches
the C-Suite will not be
tolerated. We will meet
C-Suite cooperation with open
arms. But tacit C-Suite
approval of crime will be met
with the full array of our
prosecutorial resources.
[Then much praise
of the FDIC. But wait:
aren't they deregulating these
banks?]
FBI Assistant
Director in Charge Christopher
G. Raia, after joking about
recent shoulder surgery so not
asking him questions: The CFO
has pled guilty and Chu has
been arrested... We will
protect the integrity of the
credit markets... Thank you to
the FDIC OIG and FBI Dallas
and Miami field offices. Have
a safe holiday season
Inner City
Press asked if the
deregulation of banks - JPM
Chase, Fifth Third - isn't
making this type of fraud
easier to pull off.
Clayton: Supervision would not
have stopped this fraud.
Off topic Inner
City Press asked Jay Clayton
if his office is monitoring
the Luigi Mangione suppression
hearing in state court. He:
Not appropriate to answer
Indictment on
Patreon here
Quietly
docketed on December 17 was
the December 16 arrest and
presentment to plead guilty
before Judge Lewis J. Liman of
Ameryn Seibold of Tricolor,
quickly released on $100,000
bond, filed under seal
December 16.
That case is USA
v. Seibold, 1:25-cr-585
(Liman)
On January 13
Judge Castel held a
proceeding, noting that while
Chu will get the contents of 9
of 10 laptops in the case, his
co-defendant David Goodgame
will not get Chu's for now at
least due to privilege issues.
A next hearing was set for
March 19 at 2 pm.
On February 6
counsel to Chu wrote in that
Chu's personal bank account
was frozen by a letter from
the Government, no warrant or
forfeiture order - and asked
Judge Castel for action.
On February 9,
the Assistant US Attorney
filed a letter that his Office
got a seizure warrant signed
by Magistrate Judge Katharine
H. Parker on February 9 and
said Chu's requests were moot.
On May 11 Chu's
counsel wrote in asking the
Court's permission for travel
to Colorado May 16-19, saying
the Government has no
objection,
On May 21 Chu was
approved to seal his pre-trial
motions - and after that
approval, Goodgame asked for
the same.
On June 3 the US
Attorney's Office wrote in
opposing the two defendants'
motion to adjourn the October
19 trial date, arguing that
"by October, the defendants
will have had as much time to
prepare for trial (or more) as
Samuel Bankman-Fried, William
Walters, David Blaszdzak and
others."
On June 8 Chu's
lawyer at Boies Schiller, with
a 212 phone number, wrote in
asking for permission for Chu
to travel to DC June 10-12
"for meetings with defense
counsel." Judge Castel
approved it "on a one-time
basis. In the future file any
such application with an
explanation under seal, of the
need for a meeting in a city
in which none of the
defendant's five counsel of
record have offices."
On June 24
Goodgame pled guilty,
significantly with a far-out
sentencing control date of
December 4, and Chu was hit
with a superseding indictment.
On June 29 Chu's
lawyers at BSF wrote in with
reasons to push his trial past
October 19.
On June 30 the
conference went long, with
Chu's lawyer pushing for more
time for motions, and for the
trial to be pushed back into
the second quarter of 2027.
Inner City Press live tweeted
it all - including the way in
which white collar defendants
are given more rights and more
time than others. Next is July
29, then August 6.
On July 7, Judge
Castel moved the trial: "ORDER
as to Daniel Chu. Based upon
the representations made at
the June 30, 2026 conference,
the Court is of the view that
the status of discovery by the
government is more than
adequate to permit a fair
trial to proceed as scheduled
on October 19, 2026 at 10 a.m.
Nevertheless, the Court will
adjourn the trial to January
25, 2027 at 10 a.m. with a
Final Pre-Trial Conference on
December 9, 2026 at 2 p.m. on
the condition that the parties
submit to the Court by July
20, 2026 a revised and
satisfactory schedule for
filing no less than 14 days
before the Final Pre-Trial
Conference: all Final
Pre-Trial Submissions (voir
dire requests, requests for
jury instructions, and all
objections to same) and all
fully submitted motions in
limine."
On July 29 Chu
asked to unseal the
transcripts of the guilty
pleas of cooperators Jerome
Kollar and Ameryn Seibold.
On July 30 he got
that order, and this schedule:
"Minute Entry for proceedings
held before Judge P. Kevin
Castel: Oral Argument as to
Daniel Chu held... Government
must confirm whether subpoena
returns from Tricolor
bankruptcy Trustee are
complete. Defense must supply
government with itemized
privilege log covering
relevant devices and email
accounts by August 7;
government must select 20
exemplars from privilege log
for in camera review by August
14; defense must submit
exemplars and support for
claim of privilege by August
21; government submission on
privilege due August 28;
defense reply by September 4.
Government must complete
responsiveness review of
imaged laptop limited to the
roughly one-month-long period
discussed within 45 days;
defense reply by two weeks
after the date of the
governments responsiveness
production. Any Rule 17
subpoena defense wishes to
serve on Trustee must be
submitted to the Court within
7 days. August 6, 2026
conference is VACATED. Time
excluded under the Speedy
Trial Act until trial date of
January 25, 2027. Defendant
bail continues."
On August 7 the
US opposed Chu's motions,
arguing among other things
that what Chu claimed were
"irrelevant, mass marketing
emails" including a March 2020
email with a lender 'victim' 3
where Chu sends a Tricolor
management presentation as
part of a dialogue about
financing."
On August 14,
Judge Castel denied Chu's
motion to dismiss, but granted
his request for a bill of
particulars on two of the
charges: "Chu's motion for a
bill of particulars as to
Counts Seven and Eight is
GRANTED in part. The
government shall confirm that
its list of securitizations
underlying Counts Seven and
Eight is exhaustive or provide
such an exhaustive list within
14 days of this Order. Chu's
motions delineated in the
first paragraph of this
Opinion and Order are
otherwise DENIED. The Court
will continue the provisional
sealing currently in place."
On August 21
Chu's lawyers at BSF wrote in,
about 20 Exemplar documents to
be reviewed, listing the many
lawyers Chu hired: Friedman
& Feiger, LLP for
[REDACTED], Snell & Wilmer
LLP for [REDACTED], another
firm to advise on litigation
involving a home contractor,
Landy Saavedra PLLC about the
purchase of a home, Haber Law
about property management,
Carlton Field, P.A. on real
estate and K&L Gates about
acquisition of real estate in
Aspen.
More bank
analysis on X for Subscribers
here
and Substack
here
The case is USA
v. Chu, et al., 1:25-cr-577
(Castel)
***
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