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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
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SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 2 – Bryan Cohen, a Goldman Sachs banker charged with insider trading on January 7 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Inner City Press covered it, here.

  The US Attorney's Office did not publicize the proceeding or its 30 to 37 month plea deal, but Inner City Press was in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court as the only media, and spoke afterward with Cohen's defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman. More on Patreon here.

 On July 2, SDNY Judge Denise L. Cote sentenced another defendant in the scheme, Telemaque Lavidas. Inner City Press live tweeted it.

Judge Cote: This proceeding was to begin at 11 am. The defendant is incarcerated in the MDC. But his counsel Mr. Streeter can't get on video. I

 Streeter fixed his video.

Judge Cote: He is seeking a time served sentence. He has waived his right for personal presence. He has sent in 144 letter from family and friends and fellow inmates of the defendant. The restitution order is for $186,000, correct?

A: Yes. If Mr. Lavidas pays his half, we'll get the other half from Mr. Demane. 

AUSA: If Mr. DeMane does not pay, Mr. Lavidas is on the hook for the whole amount.

Judge Cote: So we'll need a payment schedule.

The Assistant US Attorney says "the Guideline sentence is too long in this case."

Judge Cote sentenced Lavidas "to one year and one day followed by three years of supervised release." The case is US v. Lavidas, 19-cr-716 (Cote).

  Back on January 6, the trial of Lavidas began before Judge Denise Cote. Assistant US Attorney Daniel Tracer in a short opening statement described it as an open and cut case, which will include cooperating witness Marc Demane.

  Lavidas' lawyer John Streeter told that jury Demane is simply trying to reduce his sentence and has no first hand information. Here's some of how it went, live-tweeted here.

 Hours after the opening statements, the US Attorney office asked Judge Cote to ban discussion of how it conducted its investigation: "Based on the contents of defense counsel’s opening statement, the Government respectfully requests a ruling in limine precluding the defense from introducing evidence about investigative techniques that the Government employed during the course of the investigation. As set forth below, such evidence improperly suggests that the jury shift its attention from the charges against the defendant to the conduct of the investigation, and is irrelevant and misleading. 1. Background In opening statements, defense counsel on two separate occasions engaged in a recitation of the Government’s investigation and the various investigative steps that have been taken with respect both to this defendant and other individuals. For example, defense counsel said: The third thing is that you are going to learn that the government gathered millions and millions of e-mails and text messages and electronic devices, phones and computers and all kinds of evidence from this huge network of people who were engaging in insider trading – from Demane, from Nikas, from their whole network. And you are also going to learn that they gathered e-mails, and phones, and computers and all kinds of other evidence from Mr. Lavidas. (Tr. 32). Later in his opening, defense counsel returned to the same topic: The third thing that I mentioned is that the government has been investigating this case for years. They have collected millions of e-mails and text messages. And they have collected Mr. Lavidas’s phones, his iPad, his computer, his documents. They have collected a long list of phones, computers, disc drives from Mr. Nikas. They collected a long list of those same things from Mr. Demane. And they collected those same things secretly, for years, from Google and other companies where their e-mail accounts were.... The Government respectfully requests that the Court preclude the defendant from introducing evidence about investigative techniques that the Government employed during the course of the investigation."

  The US Attorney doesn't want the jury to hear about this. And the public? Inner City Press will continue to cover this case.