| Fast Guilty
Verdict on Blakstad Illumina Insider
Trading After Rare Waiver of 5th Amendment
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Podcast
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 28 – The insider trading
trial of Donald Blakstad is
ongoing in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York, but the
transcript of cooperator
Martha Bustos' guilty plea is
still sealed, as as she
testifies, it emerged on June
16, see below.
Now on June 28,
after less than two hours of
deliberation, the jury found
Blakstad guilty on all counts.
Inner City Press live tweeted
it here
(and podcast here)
Judge Ramos: We
received your note there is a
verdict. Ms. Rivera, will you
please now take the
verdict? "Guilty.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty."
Judge Ramos:
Juror Number 1, is this your
verdict? Yes. And so
forth. [This was fast]
Blakstad's
(second) lawyer: We'd like
post trial motion due on day
of sentencing. AUSA: That's
too late.
Judge Ramos: In
two months, August 28.
AUSA: We want electronic
monitoring with home
confinement.
AUSA:
Blakstad faces 10 years
minimum guideline, also
perjury from the witness
stand. And he's still
apparently seeking financing
for energy projects.
Judge Ramos: I'm
not going to change the
conditions of release.
We are adjourned.
See you at
sentencing.
On June 17
in the trial, the trades
including of call options in
Illumina by Sapphire Bay,
Sutton View Equity Partners
and even Mid-Continental
Petroleum, Inc. of Las Vegas,
Nevada were detailed, as to
timing and amount, from the
glassed-in witness box. The
accented witness explained for
the jurors being "out of the
money" versus "deep in the
money."
On June 22, the
US Attorney's Office filed a
letter opposing the
introduction of DX-AG, which
without submitting it
described as a 97 page exhibit
with "billing records issued
by at least five separate law
firms, including a law firm
related in Israel." It said
one "legal bill reflected the
matter name 'Magic Jack' 'for
legal services rendered,
without describing what 'Magic
Jack' is."
On June 25,
closing arguments began but
did not finish before the 2:30
pm cut-off. Inner City Press
live tweeted it, here
and below.
On the
morning of June 28, the
defense and then the
prosecution finished their
summations, and the jury got
the case. Inner City Press
live tweeted it, here:
Blakstad's
lawyer: You are the judges of
fact. The case of yours. You
must use reason and common
sense. Consider if Ms. Bustos
was so drunk that nothing she
says can be taken as the
truth? Or was it made up?
Blakstad's
lawyer: If you find a witness
testified falsely as to any
material fact, you are free to
reject their entire testimony.
(Pause). She colored her
testimony. Her aunt was in the
hospital with cancer but
Blakstad was still calling her
for information.
Blakstad's
lawyer: Bustos quotes Blakstad
saying he didn't call her
because he was "on a date with
a cute lady, I hit a home
run." 7/16/2017, one week
before the death of her aunt,
though, she is reaching out to
Blakstad to have dinner with
her to give him info
Blakstad's
lawyer: Bustos quotes
Blakstad, I hooked up with
her, she's 23, 5 foot 8 [etc].
I suggest to you that was
calculated to make Mr.
Blakstad appear to be a
callous, calculating person
Blakstad's
lawyer quotes Bustos, I hate
my job, I have to smoke pot to
go to work. He also
questioned, Where are the
receipts for the $12,000? Not
even any dentist bills, the
claims use of some of the
funds. [Will this work?]
Blakstad's
lawyer: So what does this all
prove? It proves that the
government can make colored
charts... I ask you to look
into his soul and find him not
guilty. Judge Ramos declares a
break before government
rebuttal summation. Thread
will continue.
During the break
with jury out, Judge Ramos
asks Blakstad if he consents
to lead counsel Eugene Iredale
not sticking around for jury
deliberations, to answer any
jury notes. He does. [Q: Is he
the Thurgood Marshall of
insider traders, on to the
next case?]
AUSA in rebuttal:
Isn't it ironic that the
defense is calling Martha
Bustos a liar? When it was the
defendant that took the stand
and lied? Look at his
demeanor: evasive, wouldn't
answer basic questions.
AUSA closed
with request for guilty
findings. Judge Ramos now
delivering final instructions
to jurors. "Only when all
jurors are present do you
constitute a jury."
Judge Ramos: You
may now retired to deliberate
on the case. Jury leaves
From June 25:
AUSA: Blakstad went out for
$7000 dinners, with money
stolen from investors. There
are receipts. Blakstad cannot
deny it happened... Remember
Blakstad traded on August 1,
2017 and met Patty Bustos
after and he handed over cash?
3 cash withdrawals, 5, 6 and 7
thousand
AUSA: [NFL player
Corey] Liuget hasn't gotten
his money back to this day
[$150,000]
Now Blakstad's
defense lawyer. "The
prosecution's closing was
good. But it was not fair."
China has a Constitution that
looks good on paper. The
problem with this case is that
the prosecution came into the
case with a template.
Blakstad's
counsel: They walk about CC-4,
excuse me for using this
jargon. It's Co-Conspirator
Number 4, whom they say is
Cipriani. [It's 2:15 now,
& Judge Ramos has said
there's a hard-stop at 2:30.
So US Attorney's Office final
argument will be after the
weekend
Blakstad's
lawyer hits 2:30 pm cutoff
slamming prosecutors paying
witness Hinton, and
essentially telling him what
to say. Multiple uses of the
word "lie." Judge Ramos: OK,
we're done for the day.
Back on June 16, Bustos was on
the witness stand for the
second day, now facing cross
examination including quotes
from her plea allocution
before SDNY Chief Magistrate
Judge Gabriel W.
Gorenstein.
Inner City
Press, live tweeting the cross
examination here and below,
went into the docket of
Bustos' case, 19-cr-482.
But there things
ended on February 28, 2021
with a deleted document;
previously there was an order
"placing this matter under
seal /delayed
docketing."
Delayed
for how long? It is no long a
secret that Bustos is a
cooperator. The last
substantive entry in her
docket is the waiver of
indictment, now on Patreon here. It has it was
subject to delayed docketing,
but we have it. So where are
the documents after that?
We'll have more on this.
Here was some of
the thread: now in insider
trading trial of US v. Donald
Blakstad , government witness
Martha Patricia Bustos
formerly of Illumina is being
cross examined. The question
are about the trip to New York
that the witness testified
about yesterday. On
cross, she's being asked if
she was hung-over.
Q: Were you taken
off the email distribution on
this? A: It was late
2018 I was taken off.
[From July 2019:
"the unsealing of charges
against MARTHA BUSTOS, a CPA
formerly employed by Illumina,
who pled guilty on June 28,
2019, and is cooperating with
the Government.]
Q: Did you
consider the internal mood to
be confidential information?
A: Yes.
Q: You
would ask Mr. Blakstad his
opinion on whether you should
sell you stock? A: Not that I
recall specifically. Q: Did
you ask Mr. Blakstad if you
should quit your job there? A:
Don told me, Don't quit, it's
a really good company.
Q: You did
discuss selling or buying
Illumina stock in your chats,
right? A: I may have.
Q: You talked
about the price of the stock.
In texts, like "I sold so much
at $160," in 2018? A: I may
have.
Q: And he
said he had sold at $200 a
share earlier in the
year?
Q: Ms. Bustos,
you pled to conspiracy?
Bustos: Yes.
Q: With an overt
act in October 2016, receiving
inside information? Bustos: I
don't recall. Q: In your plea
you admitted to being part of
a conspiracy, right? Bustos: I
don't recall.
Q: What about
CC-1 and CC-2? You did not
look at the mention of other
persons? Bustos: I know there
were other people
involved.
Q: Let me discuss
with you the entry of your
guilty plea, in open court,
before Magistrate Gorenstein.
You were asked
questions...
Q: You said you
received a trip to New York,
right? Bustos: That I received
gifts and entertainment.
Then Inner City
Press went to read the
transcript Bustos is being
asked about -- and in her
case, it is still
sealed.
The US Attorney
after the verdict chimed in
that "following a two-week
trial presided over by U.S.
District Judge Edgardo Ramos,
and approximately one hour of
deliberations, DONALD
BLAKSTAD, the owner and
principal of a
California-based investment
firm, was found guilty on all
counts for committing insider
trading and a securities
offering fraud scheme.
BLAKSTAD’s offenses yielded
more than $7 million in
criminal profits. .. BLAKSTAD
is scheduled to be sentenced
before Judge Ramos, who
presided over the trial, on
October 28, 2021, at 11:00
a.m."
This case is US
v. Blakstad, 19-cr-486 (Ramos)
***
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