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Trader Blakstad Gets 36 Months After
Facing 151 Months Now Disputes Forfeiture
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Podcast
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 3 – The insider trading
trial of Donald Blakstad took
place in June 2021 U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York,
and Inner City Press covered
it, noting that the
transcript of cooperator
Martha Bustos' guilty plea is
still sealed, as as she
testified, see below.
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)
On November 3,
Blakstad came back for
in-person sentencing, facing
151 to 188 months and Inner
City Press was there to cover
it, in person. Vlog
I; thread here,
Vlog
2; podcast:
Here in Judge
Ramos' courtroom, Blakstad in
plaid shirt with 2 lawyers.
Judge
Ramos: Offense level is 34,
guideline sentence is 151 to
188 months. Blakstad's
lawyer is disputing it
Blakstad's
lawyer says the cited victim
Mr Bourris is in his early
40s, 22 years until
retirement. Judge Ramos:
The guidelines will not be the
main driver of the sentence.
AUSA: Mr Blakstad
committed perjury
Judge
Ramos: I credited Ms Bustos.
The perjury enhancement is
appropriate.
AUSA: Blakstad
defrauded people. He groomed
Ms. Bustos, 20 years his
junior. We want 10 years, like
Judges Furman and Stein gave.
Blakstad's
lawyer: Here in gallery [in a
bright yellow sweatshirt] is a
Blakstad supporter, Michael
Fuller. Cites football player
with big guaranteed contract.
Is not asking for home
confinement. But "how long?"
Blakstad's
lawyer wants 2 to 3 years of
jail time. [During wordy
presentation, thinking of
other pre-COVID sentencings in
this yellow painted courtroom:
college basketball coaches,
cops who sold gun permits. Now
Blakstad.]
Blakstad
has just chosen to NOT speak
before sentencing. Judge
Ramos: I sentence you to 36
months.
Blakstad's lawyer
argued 75% of white collar
convicts get less than two
years, Judge Ramos notes.
Adjourned
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."
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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