| In
OneCoin Case Inner City Press Got Armenta
Guilty Plea Unsealed now Halfway House
Funds
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 8 – As Inner City
Press covered the OneCoin
trial in October 2019, a
number of names of indicted
co-conspirators emerged on
which we followed up.
One of
them was Gilbert Armenta,
who recorded
Ruja Ignatova. Inner City
Press has repeatedly asked the
US Attorney's Office for the
Southern District of New York
for more information; it
continues even now to withhold
the exhibits it flashed on the
screen at trial. Inner City
Press had to file a FOIA
request; the Department of
Justice denies expedited
processing.
Next we reported
this: the US Attorney's Office
gave Armenta his own secret
docket number and kept it
sealed for three years, until
AFTER Inner City Press
exclusively reported on
Armenta's continuing dubious
business activities even while
a "cooperator." The case was
initially assigned to SDNY
Judge Willian H. Pauley III,
then moved to Judge Edgardo
Ramos - who to his credit has
now put an end to continued
extensions, and set a
sentencing date for October
21, 2020. The unsealed
indictment is now on Patreon here.
On October
16 the US asked for yet more
delayed, now to January 2021:
"Re: United States v. Gilbert
Armenta, 17 Cr. 556 (ER) Dear
Judge Ramos: The parties write
jointly to respectfully
request an adjournment of the
sentencing proceeding
currently scheduled in the
above-captioned case at 10:00
a.m. on October 21, 2020. The
parties are in continuing
discussions regarding various
forfeiture issues, among other
sentencing-related issues. To
permit the parties to continue
engaging in those discussions,
the parties respectfully
request an adjournment of the
sentencing proceeding until
approximately late January
2021, with the defendant’s
sentencing submission to be
submitted two weeks prior to
sentencing, and the
Government’s sentencing
submission be filed one week
prior to sentencing."
On October
19, Judge Ramos ruled "The
October 21 sentencing is
adjourned to January 29, 2021,
at 3:30 p.m.."
Inner City
Press wrote to Judge Ramos,
full letter on Patreon here:
"Dear Judge
Ramos:
On behalf of Inner City Press
and in my personal
journalistic capacity, this is
an application for compliance
with this Court's April 29,
2020 Memo Endorsement, Docket
No. 10 to docket and unseal
materials in US v. Armenta,
17-cr-556 (ER).
While Docket No. 10 has a full
paragraph and one or more
footnotes redacted, it clearly
provides for the docketing and
unsealing of, inter alia, "the
initial pretrial conference
before the Honorable William
H. Pauley III, held on
September 27, 2017" and "the
bail proceeding held before
this Court on March 25,
2020."
More on
Armenta's ongoing companies on
Patreon here.
Jump cut
to May 8, 2025, when Armenta's
lawyer wrote in about fees and
"Mr. Armenta was recently
released from FCI Miami and is
serving the remainder of his
sentence in a halfway house
designated by the Bureau of
Prisons. While the BOP
continued to ignore Mr.
Armenta's medical issues, Mr.
Armenta will now be able to
seek the appropriate medical
attention on his own accord.
As a result, we withdraw the
pending motion as it has
become moot. The other pending
motion is the Motion to
Exonerate Bond" - filing on
Patreon here
More on Patreon here.
***
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Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
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Other, earlier Inner City Press are
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and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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