Federal Criminal Defense Blog : Georgia Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Gillen Withers & Lake Law Firm : White Collar Crime, RICO, Trial : Atlanta, Savannah, GA

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Scott Allen, of Atlanta, was charged last week with securities fraud and insider trading in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, according to the Wall Street Journal. The government alleges that Mr. Allen and John Bennett of Norwalk, Connecticut, conspired to make more than $2.6 million in profits on insider trades of pharmaceutical stocks. Mr. Allen was a former employee of Mercer, a gloabl human resources consulting firm, and Mr. Bennett was an independent film producer and stock trader. The criminal complaint against the defendants charges that Mr. Allen allegedly obtained information regarding acquisitions by pharmaceutical companies in 2008 and 2009, and gave the information to Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett is charged with using the information to make $2.6 million in trades, while paying Mr. Allen $100,000 in kickbacks.

For exceptional criminal representation, drawing on decades of Federal prosecutorial and defense experience, contact Gillen Withers & Lake LLC.

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As reported by ESPN (and virtually every other media outlet), United States District Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted former New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens' request for a mistrial in his prosecution on three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury, and one count of obstruction for his testimony relating to steroid use before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February of 2008.

The defense request for a mistrial came after prosecutors showed the jury alleged video evidence of Maryland Representative and Committee member Elijah Cummings referencing statements by former Yankees pitcher and Clemens' friend Andy Pettitte that he had told his wife, Laura Pettitte, that Clements had allegedly confessed in 1999 or 2000 to using human growth hormone. The Court had ruled before trial that this evidence was to be excluded from the trial on the ground that Pettitte's wife's statement did not involve direct knowledge of what Clemens had said.

In granting the mistrial, Judge Walton opined that Clemens could not get a fair trial as a result of the introduction of the alleged statements, and apologized to the jury for the waste of their time. The Judge had earlier criticized the prosecution for stating, during opening statements, that Pettitte and former Yankee second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, and relief pitcher, Mike Stanton, had also allegedly used human growth hormone.

Judge Walton has scheduled a hearing on September 2nd to determine if there will be a new trial of Clemens.  It appears, however, that a second trial of Clemens will not be barred by double jeopardy. As the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and other courts have held, "when a mistrial is declared with the consent of the defendant or upon his motion, it is 'ordinarily assumed to remove any barrier to reprosecution, even if the defendant's motion is necessitated by prosecutorial or judicial error.'” Lee-Thomas v. U.S., 921 A.2d 773, 775-76 (D.C. Cir. 2007) (quoting Carter v. U.S., 497 A.2d 438, 441 n. 4 (D.C. 1985); citing Anderson v. U.S., 481 A.2d 1299, 1300 (D.C. 1984)); U.S. v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 485, 91 S.Ct. 547 (1971)).

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Salvatore J. Piemonte, a former prosecutor for the Onondage County District Attorney's Office in Syracuse, New York, for seven years, and former a local judge, was indicted last November in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York for allegedly aiding and abetting the sale of marijuana, according to Syracuse.com. The government charged that Mr. Piemonte allegedly accepted a large sum of money from drug dealers in exchange for providing them with false documentation. The documentation allegedly falsely represented that a courier for the drug dealers had been arrested, and the drug dealers purportedly intended to show the documentation to their supplier in Canada in a scheme to pocket the proceeds from their drug sales. 

Happily, yesterday, a jury acquitted Mr. Piemonte on the charges following trial. His defense centered on a frequent theme in such prosecutions--that the drug dealer witnesses for the government had fabricated the allegations in order to get their sentences reduced. The Blog congratulates Mr. Piemonte and his counsel on the victory. 

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Arthur "Avi" Hiaeve, owner of the Manhattan diamond store, Hiaeve & Co., was acquitted last Wednesday on money laundering charges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. According to Reuters, Senior District Judge Allyne Ross granted Mr. Hiaeve's motion for judgment of acquittal on the seven counts of laundering drug money through his business as well as charges of avoiding currency reporting requirements, holding that a single telephone call by Mr. Hiaeve to a government informant was insufficient to establish venue in the Eastern District, and that Mr. Hiaeve should have been prosecuted in Manhattan in the Southern District of New York. The prosecution responded that Mr. Hiaeve allegedly had reason to know that he was laundering money coming from drug operations operating in the Eastern District of New York. Double jeopardy bars a subsequent prosecution of Mr. Hiaeve in Manhattan.

The government had alleged that Mr. Hiaeve laundered at least $106,000 on five occasions. Employees of Hiaeve, Kevin and Tanny Donaldson, were also charged with laundering drug money and entered pleas of guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and money laundering, respectively. Mr. Hiaeve is still involved in a civil forfeiture suit involving $3 million in diamonds and $17,900 in seized currency.

 Source: Elite Choice

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New York Senator Joseph L. Bruno was indicted in January of 2009 on eight counts of fraud. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York acquitted Bruno, who is now 81 years old and the former Republican Majority Leader of the New York State Senate, on five of the remaining charges and deadlocked on the sixth in December of 2009. The charges were based on allegations that Bruno allegedly took approximately $3 million in kickbacks from businesses seeking to do business in New York, as well as labor unions. In particular, Bruno s alleged to have accepted $280,000 in "consulting fees" from companies associated with Loudonville, New York, businessman Jared Abbruzzese. Bruno was sentenced to two years' imprisonment last May, but has remained free pending his appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Now the U.S. Attorney's Office has filed a brief with the Court of Appeals requesting that the dismiss the charges against Bruno and remand his case for a new trial, as reported in the Saratogan. The prosecution argued that Bruno's convictions under 18 United States Code Section 346--the honest services fraud statute--cannot stand following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skilling, the case against former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling, as the Blog has noted here. However, it maintains that it can obtain another indictment of Bruno under the statute, as amended by Skilling. The government contends that it will be able to prove a quid pro quo if Bruno is ordered retried. Bruno and his counsel have filed a brief with the Court of Appeals arguing that any retrial of Bruno would violate double jeopardy.

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Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an article on the nine pardons announced by the White House on Friday--the first pardons issued by President Obama. The pardons related to a variety of offenses dating all the way back to 1960. Only recipient appears to have been charged with an alleged federal, "white collar" crime--Laurens Dorsey, of Syracuse, New York, sentenced in 1998 to five years of probation and $71,000 in restitution for conspiracy to defraud by making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration

78 year-old George B. Hamlet of Georgia, unlike his prevaricating namesake, has allegedly taken decisive action to knock off a bank in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to an article at Knoxvillenews.com. Mr. Hamlet allegedly brandished a  weapon, jumped on the counter at First Tennessee Bank in Knoxville, and began collecting money from the tellers. Mr. Hamlet was stopped by a security guard as he was leaving the bank, and has been charged with one count of bank robbery in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

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In Georgia Federal Criminal news, the Associated Press reports that Federal prosecutors charged A-440 Pianos, Inc., a piano importer in the Atlanta area, and its owner, Pascal Vieillard, last week with alleged illegal smuggling of 855 elephant ivory key tops into the U.S. Mr. Vieillard and the company pled not guilty, and Mr. Vieillard's counsel has stated that the ivory at issue is more than 100 years old.

In other news, Tony Leon Smith, a resident of Loganville, Georgia, has been charged with wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Smith is alleged to have falsely represented himself to an entrepreneur in the Rochester area as a successful investor in foreign currencies and to have promised a 100 percent return within 90 days for investments in alleged foreign exchange instruments. Smith allegedly convinced the man to set up a corporation in the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and to wire $5 million to the corporation. Smith allegedly then withdrew $537,467 from the company's account and converted it to his own use.

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As reported by the New York Law Journal, Michael Scarpaci is current charged as an alleged associate of the Gambino crime organization in the Southern District of New York in an indictment charging racketeering violations, including murder, witness tampering, murder of a witness, extortion, narcotics and sex trafficking a minor. In a twist, however, Scarpaci's lawyer, Joseph R. Corozzo, Jr., is also alleged to have connections to the Gambino family, and the prosecution sought to disqualify Corozzo from the case for alleged conflicts of interest. Specifically, Corozzo's father, Joseph Corozzo Sr., is a consigliere of the Gambino family. His uncle, Nicholas Corozzo, is a capo. And Corozzo himself is alleged to serve as the organization's "in house counsel."

Prosecutors moved to disqualify Corozzo from representing Scarpaci, citing Corozzo's disqualification in April from representing Gaetano Napoli, Sr., on the ground that Corozzo had been present at two meetings with his client in 2009 in which they discussed what to do if Napoli was ever approached by law enforcement. Corozzo had advised Napoli to say nothing and give investigators the number for his attorney. Sound advice from a criminal defense attorney--which the government of course alleged constituted obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors also cited a 2006 recorded conversation in which Scarpaci's co-defendant, Daniel Marino, and an alleged Gambino associate, Lewis Kasman, discussed the possibility of Corozzo being arrested and disbarred, arguing that the conversation implicated Corozzo in the racketeering conspiracy charged in the indictment. Finally, the government contended that Corozzo had previously represented a witness for the government in the case.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the government's motion, holding that the government had not identified any actual conflict from Corozzo's representation of Scarpaci, and noted that Scarpaci could make a knowing and intelligent waiver of any potential conflicts. The Judge found that the alleged conflict in the Napoli case was not related to the case against Scarpaci, and that the Court in that case never made any finding that Corozzo's alleged conduct obstructed justice. Judge Kaplan also observed that the conversation between Marino and Kasman did not suggest that Corozzo had engaged in any criminal conduct. The Court further noted that the subject matter of Corozzo's representation of the government witness, and was only "tangentially related" to the subject matter of the case. Finally, regarding Corozzo's family connections with the Gambino family, the Court held that there was no evidence that Corozzo's father or uncle had had in any way supervised any of the RICO acts allegedly committed by Scarpaci.

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As most of the nation is aware, the jury continues to deliberate in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his brother, Robert. As noted on the Chicago Tribune's Blagojevich on Trial blog,  on Friday the jury informed U.S. District Judge James Zagel that it had reached a verdict on only two counts. The jury has not begun deliberations on 11 wire fraud counts against Blagojevich. It began its deliberations in the case over two weeks ago, on July 28.

In Georgia federal criminal news, Brooklyn Tobacco Wholesalers, Inc., a New York corporation, and its owner Tony Tavares, were indicted last week in the Northern District of Georgia on one count of conspiracy and 15 counts of interstate transportation of stolen property, according to a press release for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. The company and Tavares are alleged to have knowingly purchased stolen baby formula and razors from professional shoplifters, known as "boosters," at two Atlanta businesses.
 

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As reflected in an FBI press release, an indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Robert Egan, President of Mount Vernon Money Center (MVMC) on Wednesday charging Egan with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud and six counts of bank fraud for allegedly defrauding banks and other financial institutions of approximately $50 million.

MVMC operated various cash management businesses, including replenishing cash for over 5,300 automated teller machines (ATMs), payroll services for businesses, and an armored car service, Armored Money Services (AMS). MVMC's clients included banks and financial institutions, businesses and universities. MVMC also had several cash vaults to store and process cash from its businesses.

The government alleges that, from 2005 through 2010, Egan and MVMC's Chief Operating Officer, Barnard McGarry, allegedly collected hundreds of millions of dollars from MVMC clients based on false representations that they would not commingle clients' funds or use the funds for purposes other than those specified in MVMC's agreements with the clients. However, Egan and McGarry are alleged to have engaged in a practice known as "playing the float," in which they misappropriated funds from the substantial cash flow into MVMC to their own uses, to pay prior client obligations or to cover operating expenses of MVMC's businesses. Egan and McGarry are also alleged to have commingled its clients' monies in its accounts and cash vaults, and instructed employees to use whatever monies were available to replenish ATM machines. McGarry is alleged to have transferred clients' monies among MVMC's accounts. In addition, both defendants are alleged to have made false representations in reports to ATM clients regarding the amount of funds MVMC allegedly held in its vaults for the clients. MVMC was entrusted with approximately $70 to $75 million by its clients, but allegedly only kept approximately $20 to $25 million in its accounts and vaults.

Egan was arrested last month. A receiver has been appointed to administer MVMC. The press release stated that the case was brought in coordination with the White House's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Among the officials who addressed the media in conjunction with the press release was the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) Neil Barofsky.

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Once again demonstrating the massive potential for crime created by our digital age, 28 year-old Albert Gonzalez pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to payment card networks last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey according to a DOJ press release. Gonzalez was charged with hacking into the computer networks of major financial and retail organizations and stealing data on tens of millions of credit cards and debit cards, in one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history. He gained unauthorized access to the payment card networks of New Jersey-based, Heartland Payment Systems; Texas-based convenience store chain 7-Eleven; and Hannaford Brothers Co. Inc., a Maine-based supermarket chain. He was indicted in New Jersey in August 2009. In September 2009, Gonzalez also pled guilty in the U.S. Distric Court for the District of Massachusetts to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft for hacking into retailers including TJX Companies, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. In the same month, he pled guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for hacking into the system of Dave and Buster's, a restaurant chain, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Gonzalez had several servers, or "hacking platforms," and would give access to the servers to other hackers. Gonzalez and others would use the platforms to store malicious software, or "malware," in launching attacks on their victims. Gonzalez's plea agreement states that it was forseeable that Gonzalez and his co-conspirators would have used the malware to steal tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, affecting more than 250 financial institutions.

Gonzalez tested malware by running multiple anti-virus programs in an attempt to ascertain if the programs detected the malware. According to information in the plea agreement, it was foreseeable to Gonzalez that his co-conspirators would use malware to Gonzalez was indicted in New Jersey in August 2009 for this criminal conduct. His plea agreement provides for a sentence of imprisonment between 17 and 25 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey cases in March.

The charges against Gonzalez are staggering in their scope. They also demonstrate that would-be cybercriminals should consider their online aliases carefully, as they may resurface in a Federal indictment, as in the case of Albert Gonzalez a/k/a "j4guar17" a/k/a "soupnazi," etc.

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As reported in the Macon Telegraph, Dwight "Malachi" York, former leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors who was indicted and convicted on over 100 counts of child molestation in April 2004 and setenced to 135 years, has filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to vacate his sentence. York, who has been a minister and a musician, is best know as the founder of "Nuwaubianism," an unorthodox religious sect established in the 1970s. In 1993, York moved the Nuwaubians from upstate New York to a compound in Putnam County, Georgia, near Eatonton. York was arrested for sexually molesting dozens of children in 2002. The charges against York were truly astounding and hideous in their magnitude--author Bill Osinsky, in the fact sheet for his book Ungodly, reveals that state prosecutors literally had to cut back the number of counts listed in the indictment from well over 1,000 to slightly more than 200 because "they feared that a jury simply would not believe the magnitude of York's evil."

York has now filed a motion alleging that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents threatened witnesses to give perjured testimony against him, as well as alleging that the prosecution used unauthenticated tapes of York having sex with minors to taint the jury. The motion attached affidavits from witnesses in York's trial, including one by a witness who alleges that FBI agents took him from his family and transported him to a home in Milledgeville and pointed guns at him until he agreed to give information against York. York is currently incarcerated at the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

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