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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 23 – While the charging of two broker / dealers / investment advisers for withholding the truth from the SEC were announced by the SDNY US Attorney's Office, that Office has still not provided its exhibits on OneCoin and, so far, a just-passed Bronx murder trial, below.

From the December 23 announcement: ALAN SEIDEL was charged this morning with falsifying the books and records of Seidel & Co., LLC (“Seidel & Co.” or the “Firm”), a broker-dealer they controlled, submitting false reports to the United States Securities and  Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regarding Seidel & Co.’s net capital, and making false statements to SEC staff.

  Inner City Press was the only media in the SDNY Magistrates Court when Alan Seidel was presented on the afternoon of December 23. The US Attorney's Office which often seeks detention for Bronx defendants here agreed to a bail package of a $250,000 bond with two co-signers, secured by Seidel's home. Travel is allowed not only as is customary in the Southern and Eastern District of New York, but also New Jersey and the Southern District of Florida ("Boca Raton," Seidel himself said.)

   Seidel's lawyer Mr. Gottlieb seemed flumoxed when asked when the preliminary hearing shoudl be, asked Judge Aaron, What do you have? It was suggested to him, waive to the thirtieth day, and he did.

  As Seidel went to sign his own bond and be released, he asked the Marshals, Does someone have my belt? Someone did. We'll have more on this.

More from the December 23 announcement: "As alleged, in late 2016, SEIDEL, Seidel & Co.’s chief executive officer, and MEKAWAY, a Seidel & Co. employee, falsified the financial records of Seidel & Co. to obscure the fact that Seidel & Co.’s net capital fell below the threshold mandated by SEC regulations, submitted reports to the SEC containing false representations regarding Seidel & Co.’s financial condition, and lied to SEC staff members who made inquiries about Seidel & Co.’s net capital.  SEIDEL and MEKAWAY will be presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron."  Inner City Press covered a bail decision by Judge Aaron on December 23 - but is most concerned with the OneCoin exhibits, for which it has had to file a FOIA request, still not fulfilled.

  The Bronx trial for which Inner City Press has also asked for exhibits: on the second day of 2014 in The Bronx, New York Shaquille Malcolm was repeatedly shot and killed in a building in the Allerton section.

In arraignments that followed, Inner City Press reported that the death penalty was on the table, including as to a co-defendant who has since pled guilty to a superseding indictment, Gyancarlos Espinal.   

On December 4 the two remaining co-defendants Arius Hopkins and Theryn Jones a/k/a Old Man Ty were on trial before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.

   Testifying against them was now cooperating co-defendant Alexander Melendez. He described using a .22 to shoot and kill Shaquille Malcolm, with orders and firepower given by the two mean with six lawyers sitting at the defense table.

   An issue was the use of a rap or hip-hop song as evidence. Arius Hopkins' lawyer Glenn A. Garber had asked that prospective jurors be asked if they were familiar with "the genre of music called gansta rap."  

On December 4, Assistant US Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon argued that questions about the song - a copy of which does not appear to have been uploaded by the US Attorney's Office unlike with GUMMO and Billy in the #6ix9ine trial also known as US v. Jones - should be limited.

  Such songs and lyrics are also being used by the US Attorney's Office in another SDNY case Inner City Press has covered, US v. Darrell Lawrence, et al., 19-cr-761 (Oetken). It is an emerging and accelerating First (and Fifth) Amendment issue, leading Inner City Press to raise folk-type song SDNY questions.

   This case is US v. Jones, et al.,17-cr-791 (Kaplan). Both men were found guilty, with no timely notice to the press. We'll have more on this.

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