| In Wirecard
Trial of Weigand Patterson Speaks As Inner
City Press Redaction Challenge Pends
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 12 – The trial of US v.
Weigand and Akhavan began
before Judge Jed S. Rakoff in
the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York on March 1. Inner City
Press, which has been covering
the case including its
Wirecard aspects, live tweeted
Day 1, here
and below.
On March 9 it
connected back up to the
OneCoin crypto fraud - and the
US has explained Hargreaves'
phones.
And so on March
10, Inner City Press filed to
get DOJ's most recent
submission about Hargreaves
unredacted. The Court gave
until 8 pm on March 11 for
response. When it came, at
deadline, said justified the
redactions as based on
Hargreaves' "proactive
cooperation."
Inner City Press
submitted a brief reply,
including that "Given that
government witness Hargreaves
has spoken at trial of
Wirecard and Jan Marsalek, and
of Gilbert Armenta who is
already before SDNY Judge
Ramos in the OneCoin
crypto-currency series of
cases, it is not clear that
characterizing Mr. Hargreaves'
cooperation beyond the two
defendants on trial here as
"proactive" can justify
redacting whole
paragraphs.
Nor can inclusion of documents
in 3500 production justify
redacting portions of judicial
documents filed in public
criminal trials."
On March
12, Inner City Press was in
the courtroom when Judge Rakoff
took the bench. He did not
rule on the redactions - he
said he had received the reply
from Inner City Press and
would rule by email on Sunday
night or from the bench on
Monday. Notably, as of 10:40
pm on March 12, none of the
day's government exhibits had
been uploaded and made
available.
Inner City
Press live tweeted from the
March 12 proceedings, here:
now Eaze CEO
Patterson is on the stand.
AUSA Folly asks why he was
disinterested - really,
uninterested - in joining Eaze
at first.
He: It seems
risky. Just before letting the
jury go for lunch, Patterson
was asked if when Eaze's
founder asking him to join he
was interested or
disinterested. Judge Rakoff
noted that disinterested
means, No financial stake in
something.
So
Eaze ex-CEO, now
cooperator, James Patterson is
still on direct examination.
He describes going to Ray
Akhavan's place of work and
that, I saw porn on the
computer screens, I was
surprised to see it in such a
large room, then I went up to
Ray's office.
Patterson: I was
weird that Keith had us go to
Ray's office, instead of him
coming to us. He was supposed
to be the vendor. He had an
Alpha male type presence --
Defense lawyer: Objection to
narrative. Now they're citing
a government exhibit - we
should get it
AUSA Folly:
What was your position then at
Eaze? Patterson: I was CTO.
But then there were
allegations by employees
against Keith and he stopped
being CEO. He went to work
with Ray. I became interim CEO
of Eaze . [He's pled
guilty and is cooperating.]
Patterson:
The problem was, the credit
card descriptor didn't say
"Eaze." So it led to a lot of
charge backs. We tried to
reach out to people, even give
refunds so they wouldn't
initiate any charge-backs and
tell their bank they had
purchased marijuana
Patterson: It was
decided not to list credit
cards on Eaze's website - Visa
or MC might have secret
shoppers and come check out
the site... We would use
cookies and the descriptor
websites could read them and
redirect them to a billing
page instead of landing page
Patterson: Keith
had a non-disparagement
clause. But he was in a bar in
LA and he started saying how
Eaze had a weak CEO.
Defense: Objection, hearsay.
Judge Rakoff: I'll allow it.
AUSA: You may continue.
Patterson: I told Ray he had
to stop dealing with Keith.
The jury is
filing out. Judge Rakoff has
another proceeding at 3:45.
Still he urges the lawyers to
think, Can it ever be
reasonable to say, I don't
care about this deception, I
am happy making money. Would
that be a reasonable banker?
After
Judge Rakoff held an oral
argument in another case, he
conducted a proceeding about
prospective expert witnesses,
who appeared by Zoom,
including about the Cole memo.
We'll have more on all this.
On March 2,
evidence began - and witnesses
with immunity deals.
(Tassone's immunity deal is
now on Patreon, here).
Inner City Press tweeted in
Day 2, here.
Day Four
began with news, tweeted
by Inner City Press, that a
juror had tested positive for
COVID, and ended with cooperator
Oliver Hargreaves on the
stand.
Day Five,
things took off. The remaining
13 jurors all tested negative
and when Hargreaves testified,
first about fake website for
golf equipment and facial
cream, he soon turned to the
meat: Wirecard and Jan
Marsalek, live tweeted thread
below. Inner City Press has
asked the US Attorney's Office
to make available the
exhibits, as is done in other
cases. So far, nothing. Some
live tweets from the thread, here
and below.
On March 9,
world's collided. Hargreaves
on cross examination admitted
he and his boss Gary Murphy
had dealt with OneCoin
crypto-Ponzi money launderer
Gilbert Armenta, whom Inner
City Press has covered,
including exclusive reporting
on Armenta's ongoing
businesses. Inner City Press
retweeted from the cross here
and below.
March 9
ended, after the jury left,
with Judge Rakoff admonishing
one of Weigand's lawyers not
to himself testify, for
example that "you left on a
flight the same day you
arrived") and not to tell the
jury that the prosecution
would be recommending
Hargreaves' sentence to the
judge. "That's now how it
works in our District."
On March 10,
Hargreaves was cross examined,
then a Bank of America witness
took the stand. Inner City
Press live tweeted, here:
Defense lawyer:
You used the code, Medical
services 8099, for marijuana?
Hargreaves: We
thought it was elegant. A
consultant proposed it.
Defense lawyer: In your second
day as a cooperator, you told
the US, It didn't work with
Paynetics, correct?
Hargreaves: Yes.
Akhavan's lawyer:
You told the agents, we tried
to do marijuana delivery with
Ray, right? Hargreaves: Yes.
Akhavan's lawyer: And you
didn't say, false, or
misleading, or deceptive?
Hargreaves: No, sir.
Re-direct:
AUSA: Mr. Hargreaves, part of
your cooperation with the
government was to give full
access to your phones and
ProtonMail, correct?
Hargreaves: Yes.
AUSA: Let's
put up Government Exhibit
3604. Do you remember this,
one of the websites your team
designed for the
@Eaze scheme?
Hargreaves: A fictitious
website. Ray and Ruben worked
on it.
AUSA: These
fraudulent business plans were
sent to EUprocessing at
ProtonMail dot com - that was
Ruben [Weigand], correct?
Hargreaves. Yes.
Next witness in
US v. Weigand / Eaze /
Wirecard was long at Citibank,
now at Bank of America, in
"payments innovation." Not
much time for questions -
Judge Rakoff has another
proceeding at 4 pm (which
Inner City Press also
covered.)
The BofA official
says, "In the US, we do not do
any kind of business with
marijuana related businesses."
Gov't offers exhibits 2410,
2411. Judge Rakoff: You may
step down.
Judge
Rakoff suggests to government
they trim their case by a day.
Then defense urges that an
agent witness tomorrow be
trimmed, as not having
personal knowledge of the
documents. Judge Rakoff:
If you're not contesting
authenticity, the janitor
would get them in ...
The trial's done
for day.
And still
none of the exhibits Inner
City Press requested on March
8 and March 9 have been
provided. Watch this site.
The case is US
v. Weigand,
20-cr-188
(Rakoff).
***
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