| In Eaze and
Wirecard Trial of Weigand and Akhavan
Hargreaves Cites Jan Marsalek Fraud
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 8 – 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 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:
Hargreaves is
reading out in court his
message with Jan Marsalek of
Wirecard.
Hargreaves quotes
Marsalek saying, stop sending
to this ProtonMail, send it to
"EUprocessing."
Hargreaves wrote, EU
[Processing] equals Ruben"
[Weigand]
AUSA: Who is the
deleted account?
Hargreaves: Can I
see the page before? It's
Ray's.
Assistant US
Attorney: For which acquiring
banks did you prepare
fraudulent application packs?
Hargreaves:
Wirecard...
AUSA: Who
responds to your chat?
Hargreaves: Ruben
Weigand
Defense:
Objection, to the extent that
the document is cut off
Judge Rakoff:
Overruled.
AUSA: Where
is Wirecard headquartered?
Hargreaves: Munich, Germany...
AUSA: What is a
"card not present
transaction"? Hargreaves: A
transaction not in a brick and
mortar shop.
AUSA: Was
the fact that Eaze
transactions were intended to
be run through these Hot
Robots accounts disclosed
anywhere?
Hargreaves: No.
AUSA: In this Ali Baba chat,
Ray says, So darling what will
be submitted, right?
Hargreaves: Yes. And Reuben
says, it's fine
In the courtroom on the 26th
floor, Oliver Hargreaves is
sitting without a mask in a
plexiglass box, glasses on,
light suit, not much hair.
He's saying that the
transactions were fraudulently
run through as for "facial
care products."
Watch this
site.
Earlier on
March 8, a request to exclude
information from the devices
Hargreaves had when he was
arrested and began cooperating
has been filed, including "On
Sunday, March 7, 2021, the
government produced a subset
of the iPad material that it
represented to be the unique
material from the iPad, which
the defense continues to
review. That same day, the
government also produced
additional 3500 material for
Mr. Hargreaves that indicated
the phone may have been
[REDACTIONS]
"It is now
abundantly clear that those
communications almost
certainly do not provide a
full record of the
interactions between Mr.
Hargreaves and others
implicated in the scheme
because the government did not
take any steps to preserve Mr.
Hargreaves’ communications at
the time, nor did it disclose
that failure to preserve until
now." Full letter on Patreon here.
From Day 4: US v
Weigand & Akhavan, it's
Day 4 - Judge Rakoff says,
"That's why we have alternate
jurors... We'll space them
further apart today." Now
cross examination of
MasterCard.
Now Judge Rakoff
is asking the lawyers "How
will the jurors know" - what
the codes uses in place of
marijuana code (which the
credit card companies didn't
and don't have) mean. Others
have now reported the female
juror with positive COVID
test.
The trial
continues now cooperator
Oliver Hargreaves takes the
witness stand in
@Eaze - and #Wirecard? -
trial. Q: Were you arrested in
NYC? A: Yes, for extortion...
bank fraud...
AUSA: Do
you recognize anyone in the
courtroom? Hargreaves: Yes.
Ray Akhavan. & Ruben
Weigand. AUSA: What was your
role in the scheme?
Hargreaves: To source
acquiring banks willing to
process for fraudulent
businesses. Then I was put in
charge of fraudulent packs
AUSA: What was
Ray Akhavan's role?
Hargreaves: He was my client.
He had a relationship
with Eaze . Mr. Weigand
was the operations manager.
Judge
Rakoff: This might be a good
time to break for the day. The
witness may step down. Ladies
and gentlemen, you are about
to have a three day weekend.
Don't Google anything about
the case, or look at any media
about it. You will all be
COVID tested on Monday
Judge Rakoff, to
the lawyers: I will be
teaching virtually at Berkeley
Law School because, you know,
I am so bored with this trial
[joking.] So I can't rule on
what you submit until
Sunday.
From Day
3:
Defense lawyer:
It was Eaze 's policy to
"not touch the plant." But now
the subsidiary does, right?
Witness: Right.
Defense lawyer:
At that time, you had delivery
drivers who had to check IDs?
Witness: These
were the dispensaries'
drivers.
Now
questioning turns to why the
witness switched from GroupOn
to Eaze...
Jury is just
back. Now it's re-cross of the
same witness, Tassone. Now
Tassone, again, refers to his
conversation with Eaze 's
former CEO Jim Patterson - who
beyond an immunity deal like
Tassone's has pled guilty as a
cooperator, 5K1
The case is US
v. Weigand,
20-cr-188
(Rakoff).
***
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