| Alleged Racehorse Druggers
Arraigned by Phone in SDNY As Amr Abdulaziz
Still Free UNbridled
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread
BBC
- Decrypt
- LightRead - Honduras
-
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
April 2 -- In what was called
a racehorse doping take-down,
the US Attorney for the
Southern District of New York
on the morning of March 9
announced more than a dozen
arrests.
Inner City Press
went to cover the presentments
in the SDNY Magistrates Courts
and personally witnessed 11 of
them, all given bail packages
and released: " Defendants up
now, arrested 4-5 am in race
horse drug adulteration
conspiracy case: Alexander
Chan (Federal Defender),
Christopher Marino, Henry
Argueta, Kristian Rhein
(retained, R), Michael
Tannuzzo, Nicholas Surick (R),
Rebecca Linke and Ross Cohen
(R)."
Two masterminds
were not presented, at least
in New York - apparently, they
were presented in Federal
court in Florida. Most
defendants got released the
same day by signing a $100,000
bond, in some cases $40,000 or
$50,000.
They were told
not to communicate with
co-defendants, or to be in the
presence of racehorses without
their owners, or the owners of
the premises they are stabled
in. Here
was Inner City Press' live
tweeted thread.
Now on
April 2 all 19 defendants -
only two of them present on
the phone - were arraigned by
the assigned District Judge,
Mary Kay Viskocil. The phone
was used due to Coronavirus;
at one point, someone on the
call said he had just taken a
shower.
The
defense lawyers or some of
them asked to have Emma
Greenwood appointed as
Coordinating Discovery
Attorney. But the lawyer for
Seth Fishman said while he
would not oppose it, Fishman
would do his own coordinating.
An issue
arose about conditions of
informing licensing
authorities - both
thoroughbred and statndard
bred - and how stables owners
will police the conditions.
New filings are anticipated.
The next
conference was set for June
30; Judge Viskocil put off any
decision on severance of cases
at least until then. She made
a point of saying no one could
photograph (how?), record or
rebroadcast the proceeding,
which of course Inner City
Press obeyed. But at what
point will these shifts to
phone calls and, it seems from
the Magistratres Court, video
/ Skype make these
restrictions entirely
obsolete? Inner City Press is
purusing all these issues.
This 19 defendant case is US
v. Navarro et al., 20-cr-160
(Viskocil).
But what of
Amr Abdelaziz of Phoenix
Thoroughbreds, who used horses
to launder money from OneCoin
about which the SDNY
prosecutors were so concerned
until, like with the UN, they
weren't? Watch this site.
***
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