| Hooper Pled
To Carbon Credits Fraud Now For June 16
Sentencing Wants Time Served
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY Courtroom
Exclusive, June 14 – Roger Ralston,
Christopher Wright and Steven
Hooper all faced a joint wire
fraud conspiracy trial on May
12, 2022.
On February 18, U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge Jed
S. Rakoff held a lengthy
in-person oral argument. Inner
City Press went and covered
it.
Among the
issues raised is whether the
trials should be severed.
Hooper proffered to the US
Attorney's Office for some 18
hours and almost got a
cooperator's deal. Now,
counsel for Ralston argues,
Hooper's information could
never be effectively
"Bruton-ized" at trial.
[See, Bruton
v. US, 391 U.S. 123
(1968)]
Hooper's counsel countered,
why not a bench trial for him,
with stipulated facts? Judge
Rakoff said it would not be a
problem for him, but asked the
government. Assistant US
Attorney Jessica K. Feinstein
said they will "take it under
advisement."
On March
15, severance was granted --
but not on the Brutonization
grounds, but due to a serious
health problem for Ralston due
to a recent accident.
Hooper and Wright
would be put on trial on April
25; Ralston to follow on
September 12.
On April 5,
a change of plea (to guilty)
was set for two of the
defendants: "held on 4/5/2022
without transcription or
recording. Melissa Kelley of
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP for
Defendant Wright and Shaelyn
Gambino-Morrison of
ChaudhryLaw PLLC for Defendant
Hooper were present. A change
of plea hearing concerning
both defendants is set for
4/8/22 at 3:00 p.m."
Inner City Press
went and covered the in-person
guilty pleas, the only media
in the courtroom. Both Wright
and Hooper got sentencing
ranges of 70 to 87 months, but
60 months is the cap. After
Wright pled (allocuting to
Cyprus to Saint Vincent wires)
and left, it was said Hooper
had been offered a
cooperator's deal, and that
the government at this
sentencing on June 16 at noon
will say he told the truth.
His
allocuation described
fraudulent carbon credit, a
scheme he withdrew from on
this own.
But when
Hooper's counsel asked that he
be allowed to travel back to
the UK before sentencing, the
AUSA opposed it and Judge
Rakoff agreed, keeping the
conditions of release
including GPS bracelet, the
same.
Jump cut to June
14, two days before
sentencing, and Hooper through
counsel re-argued for a time
served sentence, chiding the
government for ignoring COVID
conditions and his
cooperation.
The case is
US v. Ralston, et al.,
19-cr-774 (Rakoff)
***
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