REUTERS: Ex-Kit Digital CEO, associate convicted in U.S. of fraud schemes

Ex -Kit Digital CEO, Associate Convicted in US of Fraud Schemes

(Reuters) - The former head of Kit Digital Inc and a business associate were convicted on Tuesday on charges related to what prosecutors said were wide-ranging fraud schemes involving the bankrupt video technology company.

Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, a former Goldman Sachs analyst who achieved brief fame as an internet entrepreneur before becoming Kit Digital’s chief executive, was found guilty by a federal jury in Manhattan of charges including that he conspired to commit securities fraud, prosecutors said.

Omar Amanat, an investor in media, finance and technology companies including at one time the studio behind the “Twilight” movie franchise, was convicted of charges that included conspiring to commit wire fraud and securities fraud.

In the government’s opening statement, jurors were told they’d also see evidence of phony financial statements and numerous discussions about the frauds in text messages and emails exchanged between Amanat, Tuzman and Maiden.In one such message, Amanat wrote to Maiden that Tuzman needs to realize "it doesn’t matter who did what" if investors realize the money is gone, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Naftalis told the jury. Amanat then made a reference to "criminal behavior, jail time," Naftalis said.  "It doesn’t get more devastating than that," the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors said that in 2008, Tuzman at Amanat’s request arranged for Kit Digital to invest $6.5 million in a fund affiliated with Amanat, Enable Invest Ltd.

To encourage the investment, Amanat told Tuzman he would raise money for a Tuzman-controlled investment vehicle, leading to him arranging for Maiden’s Maiden Capital Opportunity Fund to invest $1 million into it, the indictment said.

The indictment said Tuzman without permission redirected funds from Maiden Capital’s $1 million investment and used the money as part of Kit Digital’s $6.5 million investment in Enable.

Prosecutors said that when Enable suffered losses later in 2008, Amanat helped Maiden conceal them from Maiden Capital’s investors, including by providing loans to repay investors, prosecutors said.

BLOOMBERG: Peruvian Acquitted in Soccer Bribery Trial in U.S.

Peruvian Acquitted in Soccer Bribery Trial in U.S.

 By Christie Smythe

• Jury’s not guilty finding follows conviction of Napout, Marin
• Manuel Burga says he plans to return home to wife and children

A former Peruvian soccer official was acquitted of U.S. charges that he accepted bribes from sports-marketing companies for media rights to professional tournaments.
The acquittal amounts to a mixed verdict for the U.S. government, which won convictions against the former heads of Brazil’s soccer federation and South American soccer on Friday.
A jury in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday came back with a not guilty verdict on a single count of racketeering conspiracy for Manuel Burga, 60. The jurors were undecided about Burga last week, when they delivered the guilty verdicts against the other officials.
Burga choked back sobs, covering his mouth, as the verdict was read.

L-R  Former president of Peru’s soccer federation, Manuel Burga, US Atty Keith Edelman, Burga’s Atty, Bruce Udolf  Courtroom Art by Aggie Whelan Kenny

“My heart is bumping,” Burga in a hallway afterward. “I’m scared how it’s bumping.”
Burga was charged alongside Juan Angel Napout, 59, a Paraguayan who was president of CONMEBOL, South American soccer’s governing body, and Jose Maria Marin, 85, the former head of Brazil’s soccer federation, as part of a sprawling U.S. probe alleging that international soccer officials and sports marketing executives conspired for decades in bribery schemes.
The U.S. verdict came in the first case to go to trial in a corruption crackdown that began with a predawn raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich in 2015. Burga’s acquittal and Napout and Marin’s convictions follow guilty pleas from 24 people tied to FIFA, international soccer’s governing association. Fifteen others who’ve been charged are fighting extradition to the U.S.
"There’s no question in my mind that it was the right call by the jury," Bruce Udolf, Burga’s lawyer, said in an interview after the verdict. "I’m very happy for him because he’s a good man and he’s been through hell for the last two years."

Judge Thomas P. Griesa

SDNY is sad to announce the passing of Judge Thomas P. Griesa on December 24. Judge Griesa was appointed to the Court in 1972 by Richard Nixon. Judge Griesa served as Chief Judge from 1993 through 2000 and assumed Senior status in March 2000.   

Judge Thomas P. Griesa ,during Argentina Bonds hearing 2014

Statement from Chief Judge McMahon: 

"Judge Griesa is one of the longest serving judges in Mother Court history. 

Judge Griesa leaves a legacy of many important decisions. But among the courthouse family, he will be particularly remembered as the Chief Judge who brought both the Moynihan and Brieant Courthouse construction projects to a successful conclusion -- a feat commemorated by the Board of Judges' decision to name its meeting room in his honor. 

He gave our court seven years of wise leadership, and he gave his country 45 years of devoted service. He was particularly proud that he and the other judges with whom he has served have been assiduously non-political"

AP: Lawyers: Trump too busy to face woman’s defamation lawsuit

By COLLEEN LONG

Yesterday

 https://www.apnews.com/a2dbc61fdaca4b2e99ecc95abc8915f9

Link copied!

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump argued on Tuesday that a defamation lawsuit filed by a former contestant on his reality TV show “The Apprentice” who accused him of unwanted sexual contact should at least be blocked while he’s in office because he’s too busy and important.

Summer Zervos was a contestant on the show in 2006 and sued the Republican after he dismissed as “fabricated and made-up charges” her claims that he made unwanted sexual contact with her at a Beverly Hills, California, hotel in 2007. Her lawsuit sought an apology and at least $2,914.

Outside court on Tuesday, Zervos thanked her lawyers and said softly: “Justice prevails.”

Trump didn’t attend.

Trump’s lawyers argued the U.S. Constitution immunizes him from being sued in state court while he’s president and said the case should at least be delayed until he’s out of office. The lawyers said their position is supported by a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases requiring courts to show deference to the president and his schedule.

No president has sought to delay a lawsuit in a state court while in office, the lawyers and the judge said.

But in 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a sitting president was not immune from civil litigation on something that happened before taking office and was unrelated to the office. The ruling came after Paula Jones filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, husband of Trump’s main opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The case was dismissed by a judge.

A footnote in that ruling, though, should be interpreted as saying state courts don’t have the same jurisdiction over the president, Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz argued.

Judge Jennifer Schecter asked whether the footnote is specific in saying state courts don’t have jurisdiction, and Kasowitz said no. But Trump’s job is round-the-clock, and he can’t be expected to devote time to the court while in office, Kasowitz.
Courtroom art by Aggie Whelan Kenny, click on image to see larger

Zervos’ attorneys argued that delaying the case would mean witnesses would forget and documents could be destroyed. Attorney Mariann Wang said the court clearly has the power to hear the case.

Wang said Zervos’ team would be flexible with the president’s schedule and would agree to videotaped depositions if necessary. She said Trump “does not do his job 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

“We can take a deposition down to Mar-a-Lago in between him going to play golf,” she said, a jab at Trump’s frequent visits to his Florida resort.

BLOOMBERG.COM Zarrab Recorded in Jail Saying `You Have to Lie' to Get Leniency

Zarrab Recorded in Jail Saying `You Have to Lie' to Get Leniency

Bob Van Voris, Christian Berthelsen, Chris Dolmetsch

Reza Zarrab, the Turkish currency trader who admitted helping Iran move billions of dollars in violation of U.S. financial sanctions, said in a recorded jailhouse conversation that he needed to lie about his own crimes to get a reduced sentence, according to a summary of his words.

Zarrab, the government’s star witness in the trial of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, testified for a fourth day Monday in Manhattan federal court. Atilla’s lawyers, who could begin cross-examining Zarrab as soon as Tuesday, complained to U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in a letter Monday that prosecutors dragged their feet in turning over recordings of the Sept. 15, 2016, conversation and four others.

Zarrab has testified that he was arrested and taken into custody by Turkish financial authorities on Dec. 17, 2013. Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sidhardha Kamaraju, Zarrab said he made payments in connection with his release from prison.

"Were they bribes?" Kamaraju asked.

"In part," Zarrab said, without explaining further.
click on image to see larger

"Zarrab is proclaiming his willingness to fabricate testimony out of whole cloth in order to obtain a reduced sentence," Atilla’s lawyers argued in the letter, which was posted, then removed without explanation, from the publicly available court docket.

They claim the production of the evidence on Saturday at 10:42 p.m. "significantly impairs the ability of the defense" to use them at trial.

Zarrab, who was initially the key defendant in the case, spent a year in U.S. jails awaiting trial before agreeing last month to plead guilty and cooperate with the government’s case against Atilla. Though nine defendants have been charged, only Atilla, who was a deputy general manager at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, is being tried, and only Zarrab and Atilla are in U.S. custody.

‘In America’

In the letter, Atilla’s lawyers told Berman that Zarrab said on the jailhouse recording, "In America in order to make it out of prison you need to admit to something you haven’t committed."
Zarrab has testified to helping Iran make international payments by disguising them as payments for phony gold and food sales that were structured to make it appear that they complied with U.S. sanction regulations. On Thursday, Zarrab said he believed two Turkish banks were included in the scheme with the approval of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who at the time was Turkey’s prime minister and is now its president. 

Zarrab has pleaded guilty to seven felonies, including conspiracy, sanctions violations, bank fraud and money laundering. He admitted bribing a corrections officers in the U.S. to sneak him alcohol and let him make cell phone calls.

The case is U.S. v Zarrab, 15-cr-867, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

More from Bloomberg.com

New York City Urban Sketchers: Courtroom Sketch Bonanza at John Jay College

New York City Urban Sketchers: Courtroom Sketch Bonanza at John Jay College: By  Jeffrey M Levine Vincent “The Fish” Cafaro, artist Richard Tomlinson This is a message to Urban Sketchers and those interested in...

John Jay College Lloyd Sealy Library Exhibit- Rogues Gallery:40 Years of Court Art

ROGUES GALLERY: Forty Year Retrospective of Courtroom Art from Son of Sam to El Chapo

Curated by Larry E. Sullivan (Chief Librarian), Aggie Whelan Kenny, and Elizabeth Williams

On view November 30, 2017 to February 2, 2018

Rogue’s Gallery – 1977 – 2017 – 40 Year Retrospective of Courtroom Art from Son of Sam to El Chapo showcases the work of three award winning and nationally known illustrators: Aggie Kenny, Richard Tomlinson and Elizabeth Williams. Through their art, viewers will learn about the wide and varied actions of the United States legal system. The images (most never exhibited before) show various New York courts and cases.

Artist Richard Tomlinson bequeathed his entire body of work to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Lloyd Sealy Library. Subsequently the Library’s courtroom art collection grew to include works by Aggie Whelan Kenny and Elizabeth Williams. This exhibition marks the fortieth anniversary of the Son of Sam case and the thirtieth anniversary of the Bernhard Goetz subway shootings. The John Jay exhibit allows observers to step into New York’s colorful historical trials and cases.

Link to buy the catalog 
 http://www.lulu.com/shop/anya-and-andrew-shiva-gallery-john-jay-college-of-criminal-justice/the-rogues-gallery/paperback/product-23404116.html

Location: Shiva Gallery, located just inside the 11th Avenue entrance to John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Address: 860 11th Avenue (between 58th & 59th St), New York, NY 10019.

The Shiva Gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 10am – 6pm. 

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A large portion of the items on view are from the Richard Tomlinson, the Aggie Whelan Kenny, and the Elizabeth Williams Courtroom Drawings Collections, all housed in the Lloyd Sealy Library Special Collections.