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Discrepancies, a Potential Alibi and Early Tweets in Dominique Strauss-Khan Case

Via the New York Times: Information from IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn's lawyers may have the makings of an alibi:

.... he checked out of the hotel around 12:30 p.m., returning his keys to reception, and met his daughter for lunch before going to the airport, where he realized he had lost one of his cellphones, calling the hotel and asking that they return it to him at the airport. The New York police originally estimated the time of the alleged attack on the maid at about 1 p.m., but have since revised it to around noon.

And how did Strauss-Kahn's political opponents get the news before the media? The first tweet was by a French student who belongs to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right party. [More...]

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IMF Director Strauss-Kahn Denied Bail

IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was denied bail today, at least until his next court appearance on May 20. He's charged with unlawful imprisonment, engaging in a criminal sex act and attempted rape. Here's the Complaint.

According to Reuters twitter feed, prosecutors argued against bail, saying he may have engaged in similar conduct once before. The defense asked for $1 million bail, saying they expect him to be exonerated. They also told the judge that the person Strauss-Kahn had lunch with on Saturday will testify he was not fleeing the hotel.

By May 20, they will probably have some elaborate plan in place for a private security firm to do 24 hour monitoring at a New York apartment or hotel (as was done for Bernie Madoff and Cameron Douglas (who still managed to violate the terms and get bail revoked.)

More from the New York Times here.

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New Details on Sex Charge Against Head of IMF

The Wall St. Journal has new details on the sex assault charge against IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

First, he's being represented by Ben Brafman (great choice.) Next, the maid accusing him identified him through a photo identification known as a "show up."

The accuser informed hotel security officials, who showed her a photo of the suite's occupant. After she identified Mr. Strauss-Kahn as her attacker, hotel officials then called police.

[More...]

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Galleon's Raj Rajaratnam, Found Guilty on All Counts

Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty of all 14 counts in his insider trading trial. His bond was continued until sentencing, with a condition of home confinement. His lawyer promises an appeal.

Prosecutors say his sentencing guideline range is about 19 1/2 years. Sentencing is set for July 29.

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Jury Acquits Two of Four Defendants in DEA African Adventures Trial

Bump and Update: The jury convicted two defendants, including Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, and acquitted two defendants. Giants owner John Mara was one of the jurors.

All defendants except Yaroshenko acknowledged participation in cocaine transactions involving South America and Africa. They denied they were part of a conspiracy to have some of the drugs sent to the U.S. No cocaine was actually shipped anywhere, and the only connection to the U.S. was that the DEA informant in the sting operation told the others he planned to have his portion of the cocaine flown from Ghana to New York. I assume the two who were acquitted were Nathanial French and Mawuko Kudufia, whose alleged roles were to assist in the planned offload of the cocaine in Liberia after it arrived from South America. (Update: Those were the two who were acquitted, the U.S. Attorney's press release on the verdict is here.)

All four were flown from Africa to New York to stand trial in June, 2010, and have been detained since then. At least two will get to go home now. [More...]

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FBI Serves Grand Jury Subpoena Likley Related to Wikileaks

Glenn Greenwald at Salon reports on a new grand jury subpoena served yesterday that likely relates to the Wikileaks investigation:

In the wake of a massive disclosure of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks, the FBI yesterday served a Grand Jury subpoena in Boston on a Cambridge resident, compelling his appearance to testify in Alexandria, Virgina. Alexandria is where a Grand Jury has been convened to criminally investigate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and determine whether an indictment against them is warranted. The individual served has been publicly linked to the WikiLeaks case, and it is highly likely that the Subpoena was issued in connection with that investigation.

Glenn has copies of the supboena and accompanying letter. The subpoena is dated 4/11/2011, and the letter 4/21/2011. Glenn reports it was served yesterday. [More...]

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Lindsay Lohan Preliminary Hearing Underway


Photo by SplashNewsOnline.

TMZ is reporting live on Lindsay Lohan's preliminary hearing on a felony theft charge.

Lindsay's lawyer, Shawn Holley, will be arguing the charge should only be a misdemeanor due to the value of the necklace at issue. Shawn had the necklace appraised: [More...]

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Bradley Manning to be Moved to Ft. Leavenworth

The Defense Department announced today that Pvt. Bradley Manning will be moved from Quantico to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth.

The Kansas prison opened in 2010 as part of the Military Correctional Complex.

From their Flickr page, here's a photo of a cell.

Some recent cases challenging military pre-trial detention conditions are here.

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Duke Lacrosse Accuser Indicted for Murder

Crystal Magnum, the woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape, has been indicted in North Carolina for the murder of her boyfriend, Reginald Daye. She was initially arrested two weeks ago and charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly stabbing him with a kitchen knife. He died from the stab wounds four days ago.

It's hardly her first new brush with the law since the Duke case. In February of last year, she was arrested for the attempted murder of a different boyfriend, and ultimately charged with felony first-degree arson and a slew of misdemeanors, including contributing to the delinquency of a minor, injury to personal property and resisting arrest. [More...]

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The Internet Poker Civil Suit: Seeks $3 Billion Forfeiture

The Indictment of the 11 internet poker company executives and payment processors is only part of the story. Along with the Indictment, which was returned on March 10 but not unsealed until this Friday, the Government filed a civil lawsuit, available here, seeking forfeiture of $3 billion, as well as the company's domain names and websites.

The Defendant Entities are liable to the Government for a sum of money representing the amount of property, funds, or monetary instruments involved in the money laundering offenses described above, in an amount that is no less than $1.5 billion for the PokerStars Entities; $1 billion for the Full Tilt Poker Entities; and $500 million for the Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet Entities.

[More...]

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Poker Busts: A Trail of Cooperators

Friday's announcement of a massive indictment against 11 big wigs in the world on online poker follow a predictable pattern: Earlier busts and flips.

Looking at today's indictment, available here, it's obvious there was an earlier, preceding indictment. The case is numbered 10-cr-336 which means it was filed in 2010. And today's indictment is called a "Superseding Indictment."

Who got indicted first in case no 10-cr-336? Daniel Tzvetkoff, age 27, owner of Intanet, an online payment processing company in Australia. He was indicted in New York in April, 2010 on money laundering and related charges for processing $543 million in payments for online gambling companies and disguising the transactions as being unrelated to gambling. [More...]

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FBI Busts Online Betting Sites

LATimes:

The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted by the FBI on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to the thriving industry. Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court.

Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By Friday afternoon Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”

Back to old school settling once a week, if they still exist that is. Or moving to Vegas.

Speaking for me only

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