Monday 4/25

FBI Agent Richard Volp completed his testimony from last Friday and was cross-examined by the Defense.  He admitted that Mike’s so-called “confession”, which IRS Agent Batsch submitted 30 days after the two of them had interviewed Mike on April 18, 2019, was falsely reported.  Volp’s notes, which were taken that day and from which Batsch wrote his Memorandum of Interview for submission a month later, contradicted what was written – as did the notes taken immediately after the Volp/Batsch interview by Elsie Robinson from the CFTC during her interview of Mike that same morning of the 18th. 

Coupled with FBI Agent Stone’s testimony from last week, Agent Volp’s testimony revealed a disturbing willingness of federal agents to falsify reported testimony to make it conform to their own narrative and they’re not above lying in doing so.

Joe Anile, Oasis’ corporate attorney, took the witness stand and openly lied to the Court, telling it that he was not Oasis’ attorney and disavowing that he had anything to do with legal work for the Company.  This, of course, was absolutely crazy since the only reason he was given a partnership interest was because of his legal expertise in securities.  Anile also told the jury that Mike had admitted to him that he had created a Ponzi scheme to take advantage of the lenders-which would have made him a co-conspirator.  The breathtaking brazenness of his lies caught many in the court by surprise, not least his two former partners, Mike DaCorta and Ray Montie, both of whom were sitting there in court bearing witness to the depraved breakdown in character of a man they had formerly trusted with the legal well-being of their company.

Anile pled guilty to criminal charges in 2019. He was convicted at that end of that year, sentenced to 10 years on prison and, pending his appearance for the Prosecution in this, his partner’s trial, was allowed to stay at home. He doesn’t have to report to prison until not sooner than July of this year.  He danced to the government’s Hurley Gurley tune in court today, just as they wanted him to.

Tuesday, 4/26

During the conclusion of cross examination by defense attorney Sylvia Irvin, the Court listened to 8-10 phone conversations that Anile had surreptitiously recorded without the awareness or permission of those he was speaking to. These included talks with his partners, Mike DaCorta and Ray Montie, employee Joe Paniagua, and prospective CFO, Joe Calliendo, a friend of Anile’s.

Upon the seizure of Oasis’ properties on April 18, 2019, which was the first time any of them were alerted to the legal challenge Oasis suddenly faced, each of man separately called Oasis Attorney Anile seeking legal advice – which he gave!  Sylvia pointed out that Anile was in fact giving legal advice during each of the phone calls and that the calls between him and Mike certainly didn’t seem like those of two Ponzi Scheme co-conspirators as Anile had earlier characterized his relationship with Mike. 

Sylvia also showed that Anile had twice taken far more in monthly payments than the $10,000 salary that had been agreed upon for his services.  She went into Anile’s bank records and showed illegitimate purchases he and his wife had made out of Oasis bank accounts that were under his sole control.  He purchased a Ferrari with stolen corporate funds… but at 6 foot 6 inches and being over 400 pounds, he couldn’t fit in it…shades of O.J. Simpson’s attorney, Johnnie Cochran’s famous reference to the glove – “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”

Throughout her day and half of testimony last week, Deb Cheslow repeatedly referred to Joe Anile as the corporate attorney from whom she received many directives and legal advisories on what could and couldn’t be said or done in her position as Oasis Office Manager.  Subsequent testimony and documented evidence submitted by other witnesses on both sides of the argument consistently confirmed that Joe Anile was Oasis Legal Counsel.

A lender from New York, Anthony Charles, appeared for the prosecution, but he seemed to know very little about the Company operations and was probably of little help in clarifying things for the jury. He was hurried off the stand.

Joe Paniagua, who managed correspondence between Oasis and ATC Brokers and corrected entry errors in the back-office records during its beta-testing period, followed Mr. Charles onto the stand.  Joe had been subpoenaed by both sides, but here he was appearing as witness for the Prosecution.  Joe’s brother, John, was the software engineer that wrote the back-office system, which reported daily earnings for the Lenders.

Wednesday, 4/27

Joe Paniagua continued his direct examination by the prosecution.  Joe clarified that the Spotex trade-tracking software contained a customized ledger of loan principal amounts that needed to be adjusted at the end of each month in order to reflect the relative percentage of transaction earnings due to each individual lender under their Promissory Note & Agreement.  The end-of-month adjustment to the reference ledger was necessary as new lenders would come in during any given month while established lenders might add-to or subtract-from their own principal amounts during the same month.  The principal amount for each lender was squared up before trading started the following month.  The Company traded ONLY on its own account as an “eligible contract participant” (ECP), which meant that, according to statute, the CFTC had no jurisdiction over Oasis.

The government wanted (needed) to convince the jury that the ledger proved that Oasis was trading the individual accounts of lenders whereas it was actually only trading its own corporate account and the ledger served no other purpose than to pay proper monthly earnings to each lender under the terms of the Agreement. 

On redirect, the infuriated prosecuting attorney, while stamping around the courtroom and pounding papers in a fit of histrionics tried to make the point that the lenders were financially unqualified (non-accredited) U.S. residents and Mike wasn’t allowed to trade for them. She asked if the lenders were accredited ECPs (meaning that if their account was being individually traded, they’d have to have had $10,000,000), but they were not required to be ECPs because Oasis traded its own statutorily-qualified account as the sole ECP. 

The reference ledger merely reflected Oasis sub-accounts to the master account that was the only account traded on, and those sub-accounts were NOT held by individual lenders as the government tried to make out.  Joe repeatedly refuted the prosecution’s illegitimate characterization, which left the prosecuting attorney steaming since he was supposed be their witness but was of more benefit to the Defense than to Prosecution. 

Reporters all noted Joe’s grace and gentlemanly comportment while he endured the verbal assault of the prosecuting attorney on redirect.

Michael Chalhub, a lender and Mike DaCorta’s friend and neighbor, was brought up after Joe Paniagua.  Michael also affirmed that he knew that Joe Anile was the Company attorney.

Burton Wiand, the civil court’s receiver, followed and the prosecution started on direct by reviewing his credentials and appointment as receiver.  He stated that the case had already been decided by Judge Hernandez-Covington, who is presiding over the civil case, and there was therefore no need for the jury to be seated or the present trial to be held.  Actually, the civil case has been administratively stayed since July 2019. Therefore, there has been no discovery, no evidence, no hearing and no trial in that case – the judge could NOT have already decided anything!

Asked if he would return the $2.4M that he’s taken out of the case if Mike is acquitted, he answered “no”.  Wiand referred to our Lender Group, which is composed of 67% of the Lenders, as a “small” group of lenders who are obstructing orderly and judicious process in the civil case, but the trial judge would have no part of that conversation.

Thursday, 4/28

The prosecution presented a witness whom they flew in from Chicago. He formerly worked for the National Futures Association (NFA) and is trying to get himself registered with the CFTC.  He was presented as an expert.  He told the court that the $52M in Oasis’ spread earnings were not revenue to the Company.  He mischaracterized the payment of spread revenues as lender money being repaid to them.

Friday, 4/29

IRS Agent Shawn Batsch took the stand in the morning, but his testimony added nothing to the prosecution’s case and made no impression on the court reporters.

After his testimony, the Prosecution finally rested their case after having taken 10 days to present it.

Since the judge announced earlier that he would be absent from the court on Thursday and Friday of next week, thereby cutting off time that the Defense had expected to have for presentation of their case, it will boil down to the Prosecution having been given 10 days and the Defense 2.5.

Mike DaCorta opened as first witness for the defense and was immediately given the opportunity to clarify some of the muddier impressions that had been earlier been created by the Prosecution.  Mike had two hours on the stand before the court adjourned for the weekend.