In
SDNY US v Middendorf Sweet
Recrossed on Citi and Northern
Trust His Own Mortgage Fraud
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope
FEDERAL
COURTHOUSE, February 22 – As
the second week of the
criminal trial involving a
scheme to defraud the SEC and
the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board in
U.S. District
Court of the
Southern
District of
New York came
to a close on February 22,
witness Brian J. Sweet was
subject to re-cross about
which companies were on his
so-called Wada list pilfered
from the Public
Company
Accounting
Oversight
Board
and given to KPMG, including
Citi and Northern Trust. These
names were read out after a
lengthy sidebar involving all
12 of the defense lawyers and
the government's three,
compete with white noise so
the jury couldn't hear.
Sweet's agreement with the
government, including not
being prosecuted for mortgage
fraud, were put into evidence;
some expressed surprise that
Sweet wasn't in jail
already. "You broke your
agreement with the
government," Sweet was told on
cross.
"I think
that's up for them to
determine, Ma'am," Sweet
replied. Yes, but how? And
when? SDNY Judge
J. Paul Oetken
canceled his
other pre
trial
conference
upstairs scheduled
for the
morning, to
keep the KMPG
trial on
track.
This is Judge Oetken, who a
week before expressed
support for a confidentiality
agreement to cover claims that
Qatari royals cheat their
employees out of overtime, see
below. The KPMG case is
United States v. David
Middendorf, et al., 18 Cr. 36
(JPO); others in the mix
include Thomas Whittle
1:18-cr-00036-JPO-3, David
Britt 1:18-cr-00036-JPO-4,
Cynthia Holder
1:18-cr-00036-JPO-5, and
Jeffrey Wada, whose lawyer it
was who sought and got into
evidence Sweet's bail and bond
documents. It is being tried
in the same large first floor
SDNY courtroom that UN briber
Ng Lap Seng was convicted in.
Meanwhile in Judge Oetken's
smaller courtroom upstairs,
the sister of the ruler of
Qatar is being sued by at
least three employees who say
they were made to work six
days a week without being paid
overtime, and were retaliated
against. Inner City Press was
the only media present at the
initial pre trial conference
on the case in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
on February 14, and was
tempted to object when the
Qatari royal's lawyer from the
Proskauer law firm urged SDNY
Judge J. Paul Oetken for a
confidentiality order.
Royals of a
gas-rich emirate that has
locked up poets for
criticizing them, seeking to
cover up their retaliation and
refusal to pay overtime? It
remains to be seen how much
will be covered up in the
case. The defendants are
Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad
Al-Thani and Sheikh Jassim bin
Abdulaziz Al- Thani.
For now we can
report: the Proskauer firm on
February 14 not only opposed
any certification of the claim
to include other wronged
employees of the family, it
also proposed to sever the
three plaintiff from each
other. The plaintiffs' lawyer
argued that many of the Qatari
royals' employee are afraid to
join the lawsuit, absent a
noitce or invitation from the
court promising them
protection from retaliation,
because they are in the United
States on special visas which
only allow them to work for
this family, and they could
have to leave the country as
two of the plaintiffs have.
From the answer
to the Complaint: "Defendants
admit that Mr. Bancroft began
his employment in Doha, Qatar
and that he accompanied
Defendants when they moved to
New York, but otherwise deny
the allegations in
Paragraph 39 of the
Complaint. 40.
Defendants deny the
allegations in Paragraph 40 of
the Complaint. 41.
Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their European
travels in various countries
during the summer of 2016, but
upon information and
belief, otherwise deny
the allegations in Paragraph
41 of the
Complaint.
42. Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their trip to
Qatar in the summer of 2017,
but otherwise deny the
allegations in Paragraph 42 of
the Complaint. 43.
Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their European
travels in various countries
during the summer of 2018, but
upon information and
belief, otherwise deny
the allegations in Paragraph
43 of the
Complaint.
44. Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft traveled with the
family to Miami and Boston."
This is the
life of corrupt royals and
diplomats, such like those at
the UN up to and including its
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres who lives alone in a
$15 million mansion on
Manhattan's Sutton Place. This
is the world of immunity and
impunity and now, it is urged,
confidentiality. Inner City
Press, now covering the SDNY
daily, will have on on this.
And on this:
before Norman Seabrook, former
head of the NYC Corrections
Officers union, was sentenced
on February 8 by the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
to 58 months in prison, a
victim's statement to the
court cited what it called
Seabrook's racist rant on
YouTube.
Afterward on Worth Street
Inner City Press asked
Seabrook about the YouTube
video - actually, an audio
file with an array of still
photographs. Seabrook
told Inner City Press they
doctored it to make him look
bad. His (actual) answer on
Periscope here
- and here
now audio file on YouTube,
here.
In the
SDNY courtroom it was
cognitive dissonance: Norman
Seabrook who rose from poverty
to head of a union with 10,000
members, who endorsed Michael
Bloomberg; Norman Seabrook who
asked for tens of thousands of
dollars to steer union money
into a Cayman Islands hedge
fund which failed.
Prosecutor
Martin Bell referred to a
Ferragamo bag visible in
Seabrook's house for months.
When Seabrook spoke he said it
was a gift with cigars, taking
a cigar out of his suit
jacket.
Seabrook's lawyer
Paul Shechtman
cited
Seabrook's
work on the
so-called
feces bill to
make throwing
excrement at a
corrections
officer a
felony. On the
hand Seabrook
was accused of
threatening
his board
members with
returning to
work in a
prison as
punishment,
and of going
after anyone
who dared run
against or
otherwise
oppose him.
Seabrook felt
that it was
his time to
get paid, that
he was bigger
than the cause
he began
fighting for,
Bell said.
Shechtman also
spoke after the sentencing.
Inner City Press asked him
about Judge
Alvin K.
Hellerstein's
seeming
reversal of an initial
position that it would be hard
to leave Seabrook out on bail
pending appeal. Shechtman
replied affably that he had to
win something, after the 58
month sentence. Video here.
An issue
on a appeal will be whether
Seabrook's second jury should
have heard about the $19
million loss.
Inner City
Press asked Shechtman about
the restitution, how much
would be paid by hedge funders
Murray Huberfeld, Jona
Rechnitz and perhaps (Judge
Hellerstein
indicated)
Jeremy Reichberg. Shechtman
told Inner City Press, If
Norman wins $19 million in the
lottery, we'll have about
that. For now, $2500 is due in
60 days, through the SDNY
Clerk, for the union. We'll
have more on this.
Exiting the courthouse after
Seabrook, with a bag of Utz
potato chips and a copy of the
Daily News was New York Knicks
icon Charles Oakley. He said
that there are others who need
to be locked up as well, and
that the Knicks need better
players. There was no
rebuttal. Periscope video here.
Upcoming in the
SDNY is a recently-filed
complaint by the Bangladesh
Central Bank for the $81
million hacking of its funds,
which were then wired through
the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, a case
that Inner City Press will
cover. Times change. Watch
this site.
***
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