| Hamid Akhavan For Pot and Wirecard
Trial Wants Armed Guards in Rental Like Ng
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 10 – Hamid Akhavan and
Ruben Weigand are charged with
a "scheme to deceive US banks
into processing in excess of
$100 million for marijuana
products."
On January
7, Akhavan and 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.
It emerged that
Akhavan had been presented in
Magistrates Court earlier in
the day on an alleged
violation of supervised
release, and detained on
consent. It involved a gun.
After being arrested and
detained in California,
Akhavan was writted to SDNY in
connection with the case
before Judge Rakoff. He was
returned on the warrant
related to the violation of
pretrial release on January 7,
after a December 30
arrest. His counsel
Christopher Tayback of Quinn
Emanuel consented to his
detention without prejudice to
make a future bail
application.
Now on
February 9 Judge Rakoff heard
arguments on releasing Akhavan
for the week or two weeks of
trial, starting March 1. He
will rule by February 12.
Inner City Press live tweeted
here:
Judge Rakoff:
What about his use of a gun?
Akhavan's lawyer:
It was gun possession. He
needs to be out to prepare for
this serious fraud case.
Judge Rakoff:
You're telling me, Screw you
judge, we're one of the best
law firms in the country but
we can't prepare
Defense lawyer:
I'm definitely not saying
Screw you judge. But we just
got a lot of discovery, in a
corrupted file. I'll be in NY
soon. You know the risks of
COVID - what is one of his
lawyers gets sick? It impacts
the trial. We're asking for
another chance.
Akhavan's
lawyer: We would pay for armed
guards. [That's what UN briber
Ng Lap Seng got, in 47th
Street condo, before he was
found guilty of bribing
@UN_PGA and others.]
AUSA: Detain him Judge Rakoff:
Let me cut to the chase.
3142(i) is for preparation of
defense.
Judge Rakoff: I'm
wonder if for week of trial he
could be released to this
private facility. AUSA:
His defendant is in a
fundamentally different
position that the
co-defendant. He has a long
history -- Judge Rakoff: I
agree with all that. But
there's new docs
AUSA: MCC is
allowing in person visits, and
video conference. So he can
prepare. Being in a rented
apartment, he can try to
obtain drugs through guards,
or while visiting counsel.
Plus, we couldn't oversee his
communications. He's trying to
interfere in state case Inner
City Press @innercitypress ·
13m Judge Rakoff: OK, last
opportunity for the defense.
Defense: We'd
have to get the state
custodial hold released too.
Judge Rakoff: What about
interfering with witness in
state case?
Defense: We could
arrange that he doesn't have a
phone.
Judge Rakoff: I'm
going to think about this. The
only argument on the defense
side that has any weight is
about preparing for trial. I
granted bail for Mr. Weigand.
I went out on a limb for Mr.
Akhavan, but his behavior was
the equivalent of "Screw you
judge."
Judge
Rakoff: I'll get you a
decision by Friday. OK - the
trial will start on March 1
rather than March 2.
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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