| Jury Convicted Conde of Stealing HRA
Checks Now Bid For Bail Pending Sentencing
Denied
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 21 – Salifou Conde and
others stole NYS Human
Resources Administration rent
subsidy checks from August
2016 through August 2019.
Inner City Press reported on
the trial, below, including
the argument about HRA
negligence.
Conde was found
guilty of bank fraud, wire
fraud, and conspiracy to
commit bank and wire fraud "in
connection with his
involvement in a years-long
scheme to steal over $1.5
million from HRA following a
four-day jury trial before
U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Valerie E.
Caproni.
On June
28, 2021, the trial was
ongoing on the 26th floor of
500 Pearl Street, and Inner
City Press covered it in
person. The government put on
the stand a man on a checkered
shirt who work for the
landlord who never got the HRA
checks (their account was with
Sterling National Bank, who
trying to be bought by
Webster); then a branch
manager from JPMorgan Chase.
Conde
argued to get into evidence of
negligence, that others are
Deluxe Courier Service
committed the crimes and that
"HRA's lack of due diligence
in authorizing, printing and
delivering checks is
relevant."
On July
21, Judge Caproni held a bond
hearing, in which Conde sought
to be released pending
sentencing. Two new bond
co-signers were mentioned, and
family obligations. Judge
Caproni explained that she
could not release Conde;
remand was continued.
Watch this site.
On June 15 Judge
Caproni held a change of plea
proceeding for co-defendant
Issiaga Sylla. Inner City
Press covered it.
Sylla was
pleading guilty to Count 3. He
said he was originally from
Guinea but then became a
naturalized US citizen. His
sentencing will be in
September. He is on the hook,
if only joint and severally,
for $3 million.
Back in
September 2020 on a
co-defendant, Assistant US
Attorney Kedar S. Bhatia said
that Toure should be
sentencing from between 18 and
24 months, arguing that the
loss amount was "a
conservative figure."
Toure's
lawyers at Kaplan Hecker &
Fink LLP argued that "Toure is
a hard-working family man who
is essentially the lone earner
for his wife and four children
who live abroad in
Senegal."
Judge
Caproni after listening to
arguments imposed a sentence
of time served, with time in a
halfway house, so that Toure
can keep his job.
The overall case
is US v. Conde, 19-cr-808
(Caproni).
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2020 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
