BANKMAN FRIED FORMER FTX CEO AT TRIAL: COURT SKETCHES

Sam Bankman Fried's demeanor during his trial has shown him to be more and more concerned as the witnesses pile up and the days go on. At the beginning of the trial he appeared focused on his laptop, showing little  emotion

Courtroom Sketch of Sam Bankman Fried at the beginning of his trial 

However as witnesses began to take the stand, his emotions started to show. During the first few witnesses he did not have much of a reaction.  It was Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX , was the witness who started to unnerve him. During Wang's direct testimony he would put his hand up to his head, he seemed upset. It must be tough hearing your best college friend testify against you. 

Sketches of Bankman Fried during Gary Wang direct examination 

Then during Wang's cross examination he would write down notes and motion to his attorney so he could give them to him.  He had Post it notes all over the place. Sometimes he would fold them in his hands and then fold them again and again until the Post it was a tiny little square. 

Courtroom Sketch of Bankman Fried writing on Post it notes, messages for his attorney
during cross examination of Gary Wang

 Sketch of Bankman Fried talking to his attorney and handing him one of his many notes. 

Then when Caroline Ellison took the stand, he seemed on a roller coaster. Closing his eyes at times seeming to meditate intensely clasping his hands together. 

 Courtroom Drawing of Bankman Fried seated eyes closed hand clasped 

Once he shook his head slightly, then he would stare at his computer screen and at times he would grimace. When Ellison walked in and out of the courtroom there was no eye contact between them. 

Sketch of Bankman Fried and Caroline Ellison during her testimony 

Ellison would hold her head down when speaking or when the lawyers were at the sidebar.  During those times Bankman Fried would stare into space or look at his computer screen.  It was summed up in two words, extreme awkwardness. 

Courtroom Sketch of Bankman Fried grimacing during Caroline Ellison's testimony 

More weeks to come for Bankman Fried and his emotional roller coaster will continue. 

Columbia ob-gyn Robert Hadden preyed on patients at ‘most vulnerable’: feds

Disgraced Columbia University ob-gyn Robert Hadden preyed on patients who trusted him as a respected doctor when they were at their “most vulnerable,” federal prosecutors charged in their opening statement at his sex crimes trial in Manhattan on Monday. 

Hadden is accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women, some of whom were pregnant at the time, when they were in his care from the 1990s up to 2012. 

“They trusted him to provide this care,” Assistant US Attorney Paul Monteleone told jurors in Manhattan federal court, adding some of the victims visited Hadden for the “health of the babies they were carrying.” 

“All along he was motivated … by his own sexual desires,” Monteleone said. 

Robert Hadden accused of abusing numerous patients seated at defense table surrounded
by his defense team. 

The prosecutor described in excruciating detail the alleged abuse Hadden inflicted, including sexually stimulating his victims, licking them and making crude remarks that had no medical basis. 

"The defendant used his position of power to sexually abuse his patients for years,” Monteleone told jurors. 

The first witness to take the stand, a victim identified in court as Kate Evans, graphically told jurors how Hadden sexually assaulted her during two of her last visits to him at Columbia University’s Herbert Irving Pavilion in Washington Heights in 2010 and 2011.

“I was petrified,” she said. “I knew he sexually assaulted me. It was very clear he was a sexual predator.”

Evans, who had been referred to Hadden by her sister and who said she spoke with the doctor about her home life and kids, said she was “stunned and shocked” by the abuse. 

“I can’t believe someone I trusted and my family trusted would do that to me,” she told the jury.

Hadden is accused of enticing four victims to travel from out of state so he could sexually abuse them in New York. He previously pleaded guilty in state court to abusing a number of patients, as part of a controversial no-jail deal with Manhattan prosecutors. 

Argentine visitors describe Hudson River bike path attack that killed their friends on celebratory NYC trip- NYDN by Molly Crane

 Ten high school friends from Argentina traveled to New York for several

 days of fun — but only five went home after accused terrorist Sayfullo

 Saipov ran them down with a rented truck, witnesses at Saipov’s trial recounted Wednesday.

“We were celebrating 30 years since we graduated, 35 years since we knew each other, and there were some birthdays we were celebrating,” Juan Pablo Trevisan testified. 

Juan Pablo Trevisan testifying about seeing his friends before they were hit by the truck that Sayfullo Saipov was driving at 60 mph down the bike path. Artwork by Elizabeth Williams 

One of the birthdays was his own, Trevisan said.Trevisan and his friends were cycling in pairs on the Hudson River Park bike path between Watts and Vestry Sts. on Oct. 31, 2017, when prosecutors say Saipov sped his rented trick along the bike lane.

Juan Pablo Trevisan describing the attack on the bike path. 

As Trevisan reached an arm out and asked one of his friends to stop and wait up, he heard a loud thumping noise. “At that moment, the pickup truck [hit] my arm and my wrist, and there was a sign that was dragging that came off and hit my arm.”

Another member of the Argentine group, Martin Marro, recalled a fellow surviving friend tending to him as he bled profusely on the sidewalk.

Martin Marro testifying about the injuries he sustained after being hit by the truck while riding a Citibike on the Hudson River Bike Path. 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

“He said to stay calm, that he was there to take care of me and to protect me and to make sure that I wouldn’t drown in my own blood,” Marro said, adding that among other serious injuries he sustained were fractures to his skull, brain and eye socket.

Trevisan and Marro told their stories on the third day of evidence and arguments at Saipov’s federal death penalty trial.

After the men spoke, federal prosecutors showed the jury photos of the victims’ covered bodies.

Sayfullo Saipov watching witnesses testify 1/11/23

Slaughtered were Hernan Diego Mendoza, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi and Diego Enrique Angelini.

Also killed were Darren Drake, a 32-year-old from New Jersey, and 23-year-old Nicholas Cleves of New York.

Jurors on Tuesday heard from the devastated loved ones of a 31-year-old mother of two, Ann-Laure Decadt, of Belgium, killed as she rode with her two sisters and mom.

Real Housewife Jen Shah Sentenced to 6 1/2 Years

 Jen Shah of "Real Housewives" gets 6 1/2 year prison term

Fri, January 6, 2023 at 1:16 PM EST·2 min read

Jen Shah, one of the stars of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City," was sentenced to prison Friday after pleading guilty to a fraud charge earlier this year.

In a Manhattan courtroom, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein announced that the reality star, 49, will serve a sentence of 6½ years in prison, the Associated Press reported. Before her sentencing, Shah was facing 11 to 14 years in prison.

Jen Shah in court with her attorneys during sentencing 
artwork by Elizabeth Williams

“Reality TV has nothing to do with reality,” Shah said during Friday's hearing. "I am deeply sorry for what I’ve done. My actions have hurt innocent people.”

Jen Shah making tearful statement during sentencing 
court sketch by Elizabeth Williams

According to multiple reports, Shah will have to surrender on Feb. 17.

In a statement provided to The Times Friday, Shah's defense lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said the reality star "deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made and is profoundly sorry to the people she has hurt.

"Jen has faith in our justice system, understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished, and accepts this sentence as just," Chaudhry added. "Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free woman again, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes.

In July, Shah pleaded guilty to the count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She told a judge that in 2012 she took part in a massive telemarketing fraud for nearly a decade that prosecutors say cheated thousands of people nationwide.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kiersten Ann Fletcher said during the July hearing that Shah engaged in a fraudulent scheme from 2012 to 2021 that sold bogus services advertised to help people make substantial amounts of money through online businesses.

Shah, who admitted she was aware of the fraud, said, “I knew this was wrong and that many people were harmed, and I’m so sorry."

On Friday, Shah also pledged to pay $6.5 million in restitution and forfeiture when she gets out of prison.

After MF Global settlement, PwC Keeps The Oscars Gig

After the MF Global trial settlement, PwC keeps the Oscar gig.

http://goingconcern.com/pwc-keeps-oscars/

After dealing with weeks of embarrassment, brand damage, ridicule, repeated apologies, rejection and capitulation, PwC has finally caught a break.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to retain the firm to tabulate the ballots for the Oscars despite the colossal screw-up that happened with the Best Picture envelope.  Sure, it won’t make up for the untold millions they agreed to pay to the plaintiffs in the MF Global trial, but, hey,  it’s something!

PwC attorney James Cusick cross examines Jon Corzine at the MF Global PwC civil trial. The case settled March 23rd before  the trial came to a close. Judge Victor Marrero presiding in Manhattan Federal Court. artwork by Elizabeth Williams

The trial between bankrupt brokerage MF Global, run by former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, and its former accounting firm, PwC, came to an unceremonious end on March 23rd, when both parties  reached a settlement.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. MF Global had been suing PwC for as much as $3 billion.
"The case was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," said PwC spokesman Andrew Wilson.


Hollywood Reporter Oscar article
 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/academy-retains-accounting-firm-oscars-fiasco-989344