| Former CEO Of Iconix Still
Wants To Exclude Size of Stock Sales After
Judge Ramos Ruling
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 2 – Neil Cole, the brand
manager charged with financial
chicanery was freed on $1
million bond on December 5,
2019 and allowed to travel
throughout the United States
by agreement of the US
Attorney's Office, contrary to
the "SDNY and EDNY only"
restrictions they routinely
place on less affluent
defendants.
SDNY Magistrate
Judge Barbara Moses accepted
the agreed bail conditions,
and said that they can be
appealed or asked to be
modified before SDNY Judge
Edgardo Ramos to whom the case
is assigned.
On December 29,
the US Attorney's Office
opposed Cole's subpoena served
on Baked by Melissa, where
Seth Horowitz, a Government
cooperating witness, was the
CEO. The US Attorney's Office
says the information sought is
not relevant, but rather a
fishing expedition.
On January 4
Cole's lawyers at Paul Weiss
wrote to Judge Ramos, "We
understand that Seth Horowitz,
now a cooperating witness for
the government, also was
scheduled to provide SEC
testimony in late 2018, but
that at or around the same
time that Mr. Cole's testimony
was rescheduled, Mr.
Horowitz's testimony was
canceled, likely at the
request of the U.S. Attorney's
Office, to prevent Mr.
Horowitz from testifying and
avoid creating a record that
could be helpful to Mr.
Cole... In July 2020, counsel
for Mr. Cole submission a FOIA
request to the SEC."
On September 10,
Cole filed a motion in limine
seeking to exclude evidence of
his sale of a million shares
of Iconix stock, saying
allowing it in would create
"unfair prejudice."
On September 30
in an in-person final pre
trial conference, Cole's
lawyer argued that hearing
"$28 million" would be
prejudicial. The AUSA said it
show motive, and Judge Ramos
agreed, citing US v.
Quattrone, 441 F.3d 153,
179-80 (2d Cir. 2006).
Now on October 2,
Cole's lawyer have renewed
their request: "As discussed
at the final pretrial
conference, we respectfully
submit this letter to request
that the Court reconsider its
decision to allow the
government to introduce
evidence of the proceeds of
Mr. Cole’s sale of Iconix
stock in 2014. To be clear, we
do not object to the
government introducing
evidence of Mr. Cole’s
compensation, the fact that he
was a large shareholder of
Iconix, or that he exercised
stock options and sold the
resulting shares of Iconix
stock on October 31, 2014. We
object to the introduction of
the dollar amount of the
proceeds from that stock sale
because that evidence is
irrelevant, unfairly
prejudicial and highly
misleading.... In addition to
lacking probative value and
presenting a serious risk of
misleading and confusing the
jury, the evidence also
presents a risk of unfair
prejudice because the large
dollar figure “play[s] into a
bias against people of
wealth.” United States v.
Cassese, 290 F. Supp. 2d 443,
457 (S.D.N.Y. 2003); see also
United States v. Reyes, 660
F.3d 454, 463–64 (9th Cir.
2011) (affirming the decision
of the district court, which
“showed sensitivity to undue
prejudice concerns when it
forbade the introduction of
evidence that [the defendant]
made $500 million from the
sale of [his company]’s stock,
reasoning that such evidence
was unduly prejudicial,
whereupon the parties agreed
that the jury would be told
only that [the defendant] sold
‘a significant amount of [the
company]’s stock’”). For all
these reasons, we respectfully
request that the Court
reconsider Mr. Cole’s motion
to exclude evidence of the
stock sale proceeds. Thank you
for your consideration.
Respectfully submitted, /s/
Lorin L. Reisner." Full letter
on Patreon here.
Inner City Press will cover
the trial.
Watch this site.
The case is US
v. Cole, 19-cr-869
(Ramos).
***
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