| Hamid Akhavan Detained in SDNY on
Violation AUSA Says During Weigand Status
Conference
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 7 – Hamid Akhavan and
Ruben Weigand are charged with
a "scheme to deceive US banks
into processing in excess of
$100 million for marijuana
products."
On January
7, Akhavan and Weigand had a
proceeding before U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Jed S. Rakoff, covered
by Inner City Press, below.
It emerged that
Akhavan had been presented in
Magistrates Court earlier in
the day on an alleged
violation of supervised
release, and detained on
consent. Inner City Press has
asked the US Attorney's Office
for more information. For now,
here was the live tweeted
thread here:
Judge Rakoff says
the US Attorney's Office is
saying that the Curcio
(lawyers' conflict) hearings
have to be re-done in person -
he says he doesn't necessarily
agree, but the government is
running scared. So, pick a day
after Feb 16
AUSA Dimase: We
have an additional issue as to
Mr. Akhavan - one of his
lawyers had email contact with
a likely witness during the
time frame of the charged
conspiracy. Judge Rakoff: OK,
we'll deal with that and with
the alleged violations of
supervised release Inner City
Press
Hamid Akhavan is
now in detention, after
presentation to an SDNY
Magistrate today, AUSA Dimase
says. There was no
announcement of that
proceeding. Inner City Press
will dig
Inner City Press
has been digging into the
possible Wirecard link.
On July 27,
Judge Rakoff held an oral
argument on motions to
dismiss, and motions to
suppress, with a trial
scheduled for January 2021.
Inner City Press live tweeted
it:
Judge Rakoff
expressing frustration at
counsel going over old ground,
says "I have another matter at
noon." Lawyer: If transaction
occurred by debit card,
there's no damage to the bank,
a sine quo non of bank fraud.
Defense
lawyer: The banks received a
lot of money for these
transactions. There was no
harm to them. Judge Rakoff:
What you're saying is that
when they deceived the banks,
all they cheated the banks out
of was some policy the banks
wanted to adhere to
AUSA: It is not
clear that the bank fraud
statue is a prosecutor's
Stradivarius. In the recent
case of Attila, harm is a not
a factor. The cheating in this
case is obtaining the bank's
own money through pretense.
The analysis can end right
there
Judge Rakoff: Let
me hear from co-defendant's
counsel.
William Burck of
Quinn Emmanuel for Akhavan:
There has to be a risk of loss
to the bank for bank fraud.
Judge Rakoff: I
was surprised that no one
referred to the civil RICO
cases that have address this
issue
Judge
Rakoff: There was a case in
the 5th Circuit, [or the
11th], after an airline
takeover, to avoid
unionization, the public was
told that Continental Airlines
was not as safe as Eastern had
been. The allegation was that
the pilot deceived the public
AUSA (sounds like
Dimase) - these are more like
Rule 29 motions, arguments
about Visa and Master Card,
let the jury decide. The
indictment is sufficient.
Judge Rakoff: I
have read your briefs. And I
have other matters today.
AUSA: Conflating
loss and harm is a mistake
Judge Rakoff:
Let's turn to the motions to
suppress.
Weigand's lawyer:
The warrants didn't allege
that the devices seized were
being used for the scheme.
Judge Rakoff: I'd
like to hear from the
government.
AUSA Nicholas
Folly: We only had to show
probability... The evidence in
the affidavit came from the
cell phone of the cooperating
witness.
Judge Rakoff:
I'll issue an omnibus ruling
by the end of August; trial
now set for January.
Weigand
since he has money, unlike
many SDNY defendants, on April
28 already had high powered
lawyers from Wilson Sonsini.
On April 28 they demanded a
bill of particulars.
Judge
Rakoff pushed back, setting a
tight schedule for that: May
12, May 18 and he'll rule by
May 20.
But these
high powered lawyers have a
grueling trial schedule for
other clients, from the
Central District of California
and elsewhere.
So Judge Rakoff
agreed to a trial in December
2020, to be finished before
Christmas. Inner City Press
will cover it. The case is US
v. Weigand, 20-cr-188
(Rakoff).
***
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