| Ruless Pierre Jury Trial On
Embezzlement & Fraud Has US Closing on
Planet Wings Scheme
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 26 – Ruless Pierre is on
trial for securities fraud and
embezzlement.
On May 17,
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Sidney H. Stein began an
in-person jury trial in the
case.
Inner City Press
went to cover it, in-person
since there is no listen-only
call-in line as there was, for
example, in the recent US v.
Hild reverse mortgage fraud
trial before Judge Ronnie
Abrams.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Robert Boone
said Pierre defrauded his
Haitian compatriots and
devoted the money to expensive
meals.
The witness
worked for a hotel in
Palisades, New York,
embezzlement from which Pierre
is charged.
On Marcy
18, with the trial paused for
a day, Inner City Press ]
reported on the record that
the US Attorney's Office
offered Pierre a plea
agreement with a stipulated
guidelines range of 51 to 63
months' imprisonment. It was
rejected.
On May 20, AUSA
Boone was questioning a victim
of Pierre's, who seemed to say
she was compensated from
bringing in more victims. She
was to withdraw $43.05 as a
test, she said.
On May 24,
Pierre's CJA lawyer Brooke
Cucinella of Simpson Thacher
cross examined at length about
charts showing Pierre's
finances, including his
purchase of a Planet Wings
franchise, and payments over
Zell.
Judge
Stein asked the witness, to
friendly laughter from the
jury, Do you have a Zell
account? He told the lawyers,
including AUSA Drew Skinner
who did the re-cross, to
"chill."
There is a mystery as to May
25 on which we hope to have
more. The only thing filed in
the docket was an additional
notice of appearance for
Ruless Pierre, by Jacob
Lundqvist.
On the
morning of May 26, AUSA
Skinner gave the government's
summation, including using
slides to detail each charge,
concluding with "the Planet
Wings Scheme." He said Ms.
Pamphile was charged hundreds
of thousands of dollars for a
store that cost only $50,000,
and then was told to delete
her text messages. The jury
was escorted down to lunch
together, presumably not
Planet Wings but rather than
often name-changing 8th floor
cafe.
Watch this site.
The case is
US v. Pierre, 19-cr-783
(Stein)
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2021 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
