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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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