| Ari Teman
Said His Lawyer May Have Spied For SDNY,
Gets Year and A Day, Will Appeal
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 29– Ari Teman, raising
prosecutorial misconduct up to
the day of his then-scheduled
sentencing on December 1, 2020
learned on that day that his
defense lawyer is married to a
prosecutor.
U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer held
Teman's sentencing on July 28,
2021, in-person. Inner City
Press went, and was alone in
the gallery of the courtroom
as Teman spoke movingly for
himself. Then after a 20
minute break Judge Engelmayer
imposed a sentence of a year
and a day. Inner City Press
live tweeted it, here:
Teman spoke about
growing up in Teaneck, NJ, and
most recently helping after
the Surfside disaster, getting
Amazon to disclose which
residents had packages
delivered and which didn't. He
asked for non-incarceratory
sentence. Guideline is 30 to
37 months.
Judge Engelmayer:
You threatened to report one
of the landlords to the NY
Attorney General. You took
advantage of others' religious
faith. Reading the
correspondence, we see a
vendetta...
Judge
Engelmayer: You were 37 when
you committed these crimes.
Many defendants before me had
committed crimes as young
people. [Some may remember
Judge Engelmayer's sentencing
of Tekashi #6ix9ine: 6ix9ine's
Judge Was "Scolding" &
Deliberately Dramatic: An
Interview With @InnerCityPress
EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Lee of
Inner City Press speaks on his
coverage of the high-profile
6ix9ine case here
Judge
Engelmayer: Your moving
account of your charitable
contributions, of your time,
has impressed me. And the
letters - here are some
excepts: Your parents
speak of the joy you have
brought them...
Judge
Engelmayer: Doctor Coleman, a
physician and entrepreneur:
Ari makes the world a better
place. He's a helper....
Jeffrey Katz: Ari will stumble
on a concept that will make
the world a better place... A
non-profit says you performed
for them
Judge
Engelmayer: I agree with the
[TED Talk] quote you shared
with me, that None of us are
the best or worst thing we
have done... Mr. Teman, I'm
glad to hear you are
vaccinated. I have no doubt
that your time in prison will
be harder than it would have
been... Inner City Press
Judge
Engelmayer: If conditions
change, on variants, I would
entertain an application from
you as I have in another case.
The defense is asking for time
served. That's a non-starter.
Judge
Engelmayer: The government
asks for the guideline [30 to
37 months]. There's a non
frivolous argument for that.
But given your personal
mitigating factors - lack of
criminal history, mental
health, your volunteering -
justify a significant downward
variance
Judge
Engelmayer: Also, the
government has chosen to ask
for forfeiture on top of
restitution. I'm going to
state the sentence. Please
rise. Mr. Teman, it is the
judgment of the court you
serve a sentence of one year
and one day.
Judge
Engelmayer: The one day
allowed you to get "good time"
credit. Then, supervised
release and anger management.
Judge
Engelmayer: Forfeiture I find
mandatory, $333,000 - I
lowered the prison time for
that. I'll give counsel two
weeks to submitted a draft
order of restitution.
Now what about bail pending
appeal. What are the close
questions for appeal?
Judge Engelmayer:
You claim AUSA erred in his
summation. I've
comprehensively autopsied that
one in my decision of July
9. Defense: Our banking
expert, the prosecution didn't
rebut him.
Defense:
There's also the prior
ineffective assistance [of
counsel].
Judge Engelmayer:
That's interesting...
Judge Engelmayer
left Teman out of bail pending
appeal, but admonished and
then exchanged thanks with
him. Inner City Press will
stay on the case.
Previously, the
December 1, 2020 proceeding,
Inner City Press covered and
tweeted it, below.
Now on
July 9, 2021, Judge Engelmayer
held another proceeding, and
Inner City Press again covered
it. Judge Engelmayer denied a
motion that he recuse himself,
based on Bank of America's
role and Berkshire Hathaway's
stake in BofA. We may return
to that, and to a "Jake Green"
filing the Judge Engelmayer
cited.
From December 1,
2020: From the first moment,
Judge Engelmayer said he would
not be imposing sentence in
the proceeding. He expressed
amazement that the conflict
wasn't disclosed to him,
particularly by the
prosecutors usually so fast to
request so-calls Curcio
hearings. He discovered it as
he prepared remarks about
having known the lawyer.
But a
simple Internet search finds
that defense lawyer Noam
Korati Biale of Sher Tremonte
LLP is married to Margaret
Graham, who appears working an
SDNY prosecutor in press
releases.
Teman
added that Biale and Sher
Tremonte were specifically
retained to work on Brady
disclosure issues, citing US
v. Nejad, US v. Ahuja and
other cases covered by Inner
City Press.
He also noted
that since people are working
at home, it is more possible
for spouses to overhear each
other's work.
So sentencing was
adjourned, as were the Bank of
America issues Inner City
Press covered earlier in the
day, here.
The case is US v.
Teman, 19-cr-696 (Engelmayer)
***
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