Court filing
Sentencing Transcript — United States v. Wint
Filed June 27, 2023 in U.S. v. Wint; one of 9 filings from this case.
Record facts
| Court | U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York |
|---|---|
| Filed | 2023-06-27 |
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York · No. 1:21-cr-00477-FB · Doc. 30 · 2023-06-27 · Docket on CourtListener
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
-against-
CHARLENE WINT,
Defendant.
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21-CR-00477 (FB)
United States Courthouse
Brooklyn, New York
November 17, 2022
3:30 p.m.
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TRANSCRIPT OF CRIMINAL CAUSE FOR SENTENCING
BEFORE THE HONORABLE FREDERIC BLOCK
UNITED STATES SENIOR DISTRICT JUDGE
A P P E A R A N C E S:
For the Government: BREON PEACE, ESQ.
Acting United States Attorney
Eastern District of New York
271 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn, New York 11201
BY: CHAND WARREN EDWARDS-BALFOUR, ESQ.
JENNIFER BILINKAS, ESQ.
Assistant United States Attorneys
For the Defendant: LAW OFFICES OF LONNIE HART JR.
26 Court Street, Suite 714
Brooklyn, NY 11242
BY: LONNIE HART, JR., ESQ.
Court Reporter: DENISE PARISI, RPR, CRR
225 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn, New York 11201
Telephone: (718) 613-2605
E-mail: DeniseParisi72@gmail.com
Proceedings recorded by computerized stenography. Transcript
produced by Computer-aided Transcription.
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(In open court.)
THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: Criminal cause for
sentencing, United States of America versus Wint.
I ask the parties if you can please state your
appearances.
MS. BILINKAS: Jennifer Bilinkas. Also present,
Chand Edwards-Balfour for the United States.
MR. HART: And for Ms. Wint, Lonnie Hart,
L-O-N-N-I-E H-A-R-T. Good afternoon, everyone.
THE COURT: Good afternoon Mr. Hart.
Ms. Bilinkas, is that how you pronounce your name?
MS. BILINKAS: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: It's not Greek, is it?
MS. BILINKAS: Lithuanian.
THE COURT: Lithuanian. All right.
So, let me ask, Mr. Hart, is your client prepared to
be sentenced? You obviously were listening to the prior
sentence.
MR. HART: Intently.
THE COURT: All right. And you know a lot of the
thoughts I have in my mind. I have a lot of concerns. You
know what I'm going to do? ^ ASK CH ABOUT PARENTHETICAL?? I'm
going to incorporate, in this sentencing proceeding, the
record that we just concluded in the prior proceeding as part
and parcel of this sentencing proceeding; in particular, the
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nature of the interaction between the bank, the SBA, and
everything we spoke about instead of repeating it now -- it's
the same dynamic that we're concerned about here -- and I will
incorporate all of the prior comments I made, including the
sentence, because we sort of have to deal with people who are
co-conspirators and treat them similarly, so we got to talk
about that too, here.
Initially, my reaction is that arguably, Ms. Wint is
more culpable than Mr. Campbell. I'm troubled by the fact
that she is the one that initiated the customers that were
sent, then, to people like Mr. Campbell to do the necessary
fraudulent paperwork. So, initially, that troubles me a
little bit, because if not for her finding the candidates to
send to the folks who are then going to engage in the
fraudulent paperwork, they would not have had the opportunity
to do that apparently.
So think about that, that concerns me, because I
think that she may be somewhat more culpable because of that,
so you can address that, Mr. Hart, when your opportunity comes
to speak.
And why don't we just go through what I have in the
file, make the calculations and move on to the difficult
things.
I notice that the order of forfeiture here is not
$100,000 as it was for Mr. Campbell, but it's 25,000, and does
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that reflect the amount of monies that she gained from this
operation compared to the commissions that were earned by
Mr. Campbell? Am I reading that correctly?
MS. BILINKAS: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: So she didn't make as much money as
Mr. Campbell?
MS. BILINKAS: That's correct.
THE COURT: Okay. So I'm going to sign the
forfeiture order. I take it, Mr. Hart, you have no objection
to doing that.
MR. HART: Correct.
THE COURT: All right. Let me do that now. Is it
still November 17th?
MR. HART: Yes.
THE COURT: So on the one hand she's arguably more
culpable. On the other hand, she may have less culpability
than Mr. Campbell.
Then, I have the sentencing recommendation. The
guideline calculation apparently is the same. The
recommendation by Probation is the same -- 33 months -- and I
will note that, yes, she's going to be excused from the
mandatory drug testing provisions. I think that's appropriate
here. There's a $100 special assessment that we'll obviously
have to attach. Probation doesn't recommend any fine here. I
don't think she has the capacity to pay a fine. She's older
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than Mr. Campbell; she's a 54-year old woman and they
recommend, also, two years of supervised release, so you have
the Probation Department's comments.
Next, we have the underlying Presentence Report
dated June 24th, 2022, and Ms. Wint was arrested also at the
same time that Mr. Campbell was arrested on September 23rd,
2021, also released on a $50,000 appearance bond. We have no
adverse reports from Pretrial Services. Apparently, she's
been compliant.
While we're at it, let's just get through with the
calculations. It's the same 33 to 41 months, unless anybody
takes any serious objection to it, I'm not going to, once
again, apply sophisticated means. I'm going to be consistent
with what I did before, but we calculate the total offense
level of 20 with a Criminal History Category of I. It shakes
out to be exactly what Probation has calculated and what I
think all of us agree.
Is there any issue with that?
MR. HART: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Okay. 33 to 41 months, okay.
So we have taken care of that.
Then, I have a letter from Sullivan & Cromwell
again, which calculates the restitution at $3,335,763, and not
to forget the $0.81. And you were here listening intently,
Mr. Hart, and, you know, I think I sort of want you and the
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Government to sit down and try to work on a restitution number
within the 90 days that we're going to take to do that. And
get something realistic, something that's sensible. See if
you can come to some common ground on this. I would like you
both to try to do that, all right?
MR. HART: Understood.
THE COURT: The sentencing memorandum from Mr. Hart
I've reviewed -- very well done. And, obviously, Mr. Hart
would not want his client to be sentenced to jail.
The Government's letter is somewhat similar to the
one which the Government sent to me in respect to
Mr. Campbell. It's dated November 14th, 2022. Mr. Hart's
sentencing memorandum is dated -- I don't see a date on it,
but I assume that was done fairly recently right.
MR. HART: November 10th.
THE COURT: November 10th.
The plea agreement, here, I reviewed it and in
paragraph 4, it provides that the defendant will not appeal,
challenge the conviction or sentence if the term of
imprisonment is going to be 57 months or less, which will be
the case. And of course, as you know, there's a narrow window
of exception. If there's a constitutional right of hers
that's been violated, or something very, very fundamental,
that she has the opportunity to file a notice of appeal within
14 days to the date judgment will be entered and to be
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perfected within 30 days thereafter unless she gets an
extension of time from the proper authorities.
I did sign an order back on October 13th, as I did
with Mr. Campbell, except in the plea that was taken before
Magistrate Judge Mann on September 23, 2021. I also
separately reviewed the allocution. I'm satisfied with that.
So that contains my take on the so-called
technicalities and now we have to get down to the hard part of
this case.
Let me hear now from Mr. Edwards-Balfour's
distinguished colleague, Ms. Bilinkas, about what you think is
appropriate here. You know my concerns. Once again, I think
she may be more culpable. On the other hand, she profited
less, and how do we sort this all out? You know what I did to
her co-defendant. What do I do here?
MS. BILINKAS: Yes, Your Honor, the Government does
believe -- the Government does believe that Ms. Wint is more
culpable than Mr. Campbell in part. Ms. Wint was an assistant
manager at a bank, a bank that has locations all across --
THE COURT: She put this in motion.
MS. BILINKAS: Correct. And in participating in
this scheme, as the second most senior person at the bank,
taking advantage of being a lender that the SBA agreed to
partner with this particular bank, and she was the second most
senior person at this bank, similar to Mr. Campbell, but in a
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greater extent. This was not a spur-of-the-moment lapse in
judgment. It was a crime that was planned that had
recruitment involved by not only Ms. Wint, but people above
her, people below her, working at the bank to recruit people
like Mr. Campbell to engage in preparing tax documents --
THE COURT: He made more money out of this, so why
is it that she at least did not see to it that she was going
to be making a little bit more than $25,000?
MS. BILINKAS: Well, I don't want to speculate on
the reason that she didn't collect as much in commissions.
But, that being said, Mr. Campbell's scheme only rose -- not
only, but rose to about a million dollars in fraudulent loans,
whereas Ms. Wint's was 3.5 million because Mr. Campbell was
recruited at times to help out with certain applications,
whereas being a bank employee, she was consistently --
THE COURT: She had a bigger reach into people who
would be able to do these things.
MS. BILINKAS: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Campbell was a little bit more
circumscribed, I guess, by comparison to the others who were
doing this as well, right?
MS. BILINKAS: He was naturally not as involved in
every single loan that an employee at the bank would be.
THE COURT: Yes. I have no idea what the numerosity
is, but obviously she was more involved than Mr. Campbell in
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terms of initiating all of this.
So what do you say about that, Mr. Hart?
MR. HART: Well, first, Your Honor, I would have to
respectfully disagree about her level of involvement as the
Government said and I think is born out in that the Probation
Report, as the assistant manager she reported to the actual
manager of the branch who was the brain, so to speak, of this
particular operation. My client was directed by the manager
to engage in some of the activities that she did, in fact,
engage in. The Probation Report states that some of the loans
had to go through the manager, not my client, for approval
before they were sent out to be financed --
THE COURT: You're telling me she was duped by the
head honcho; that she had no choice but to go along with his
or her directions to do this?
MR. HART: I wouldn't say -- I wouldn't use the word
"duped"; however, there is an aspect of -- from the manager --
let me say this. Obviously, the PPP loan at the time was
something very brand-new. The rules weren't 100 percent
clear, but my client was -- maintains she was misled by the
manager that this -- these loans could be made above board
through tax filings, and that's part of the reason why -- that
she engaged in the activity that she engaged in.
Now, in terms of recruitment, some of the people who
received the loans were neighborhood businesses that my client
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already knew. She was aware that there were some hairdressers
and some other people. So I wouldn't necessarily call it
recruitment. And these people weren't approached to --
THE COURT: She took advantage of her contacts and
her relationships with other people. I assume she suggested,
I can get some money for you.
MR. HART: Well, I think when these people were
approached, she didn't approach them with the mind that we're
going to defraud SBA with PPP -- these PPP loans. It was,
initially, these people were contacted about legitimately
applying as small business owners for PPP loans. And it turns
out that those people, perhaps, didn't qualify that's when --
THE COURT: They didn't qualify and that's where the
fraud started.
MR. HART: Correct. So the initial contact for the
PPP loan was --
THE COURT: Benign. Was benign.
MR. HART: Benign, yes, correct, correct, and it was
done legitimately. And, again, as you stated, the fraud came
after, once those people were deemed to be not qualified and
then with the paperwork -- the fraudulent paperwork ensued
thereafter.
THE COURT: The paperwork went through her, she knew
they were not qualified, she knew that these were phony
applications.
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MR. HART: Right. And, again, she was told by her
boss who directed -- again, directed much of this activity
that these -- some of the discrepancies could be corrected
through subsequent years tax filings. You know, again, not
making any excuses, just as a matter of trying to come up with
an explanation as to why these behaviors happened. I asked
the Court to understand that my client, while she was an
assistant manager of the bank, there were many, many people in
the bank who were involved in this scheme, and she was caught
up in this environment.
THE COURT: How many was she involved with? I mean,
how many of these was she responsible for sending to other
people?
MR. HART: I don't know. Perhaps, the Government
has the exact number. Because I wasn't made privy to the
exact number.
THE COURT: I don't have a sense of that. Are we
talking about hundreds, a handful? I don't know.
MS. BILINKAS: I believe in the PSR, it's dozens
amounting to a total of 3.5 million, collectively.
THE COURT: That means that she was involved with
thousands of people?
MS. BILINKAS: Dozens of applications.
THE COURT: Dozens.
MS. BILINKAS: Yeah. Totaling 3.5.
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THE COURT: Well, it wasn't hundreds. It was 10,
15, 20, I don't know. But, apparently, a lot of these were
people, like what Mr. Hart said, the hairdresser, the people
who she knew, apparently. It's a mixed combination here, I
guess.
MS. BILINKAS: Well, yes, there were some entities
that did exist. It's also, I believe, in the PSR, or the
information, that there were other companies that were not in
existence that the bank --
THE COURT: I don't have a real good sense of it. I
can understand reaching out to people she knew saying we can
get some PPP money for you, but I don't have a sense that she
was out there, you know, actively soliciting everybody to come
to the bank to do this. I don't see her that way. I may be
wrong.
MR. HART: If I may, Your Honor. I believe some of
these entities were already customers of the bank, so they
were known people already. So it's not like she went up and
down --
THE COURT: That's what I'm saying. I don't think
she was actively soliciting business. These were
opportunities that she had that she availed herself of by
reason of her employment, I guess.
So what are we going to do here, Mr. Hart? You know
what I did to Mr. Campbell.
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MR. HART: Your Honor, yes, I would like to try to
differentiate my client from Mr. Campbell. I do think, again,
Mr. Campbell was not directed, necessarily, to engage in the
behaviors that he did, and my client was. Although, my client
was again the assistant manager of the bank, she was not a
manager of this scheme. She did answer to someone higher.
Someone else that all of the paperwork went through and was
approved, and when my client had any types of concerns about
what was going on, she spoke with this manager who attempted
to alleviate her concerns about what was going on in the bank.
So she was, you know, very, very low on the scale,
so to speak, I think, as opposed to, you know, Mr. Campbell,
who, with his educational expertise, was someone who engaged
in the fraud in a different manner.
THE COURT: That troubles me. So let me ask you
this, Ms. Bilinkas.
Mr. Campbell was licensed to prepare these types of
documents. It seems to me that he was more knowledgeable
about what was going on. He was more knowledgeable about the
fraudulent paperwork that he was engaged in. She was, you
know, I don't know -- she had a manager on top of her. She
seems to be a person that just had to funnel this material to
people like Mr. Campbell and others. How do I see her
relative culpability compared to somebody like Mr. Campbell
who was knowledgeable, who was well-educated? And she's had a
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tough time of it. She's unemployed. I read the papers. She
had to make an income as a housekeeper for a period of time.
She blew a good chance to really have herself a nice, you
know, economic opportunity here for a long period of time, but
these are these kind of factors that make her situation either
up or down, or a little different than Mr. Campbell's. What
do you think about all of that?
MS. BILINKAS: Well, Your Honor, I don't want to
necessarily, like, agree that Ms. Wint is somehow less
knowledgeable about what -- alternatively, being the actual
lender in charge of distributing these loan funds, she should
actually be expected to be more knowledgeable about the actual
loan application, what's required by the SBA, the rules.
She's one of many of bank employees, but she is --
THE COURT: Let me ask you this. So, initially, it
may well be that in the inception, a number of these
referrals, so to speak, to people like Mr. Campbell was
relatively benign. She knew people, make an application,
maybe you can get a loan, right? And so at that particular
point in time, she may not have known that they were going to
be fraudulent documents prepared by other people, unless I
really don't have a good grasp of this. There came a point in
time when she knew that was the case, but I don't think that
was the case in the inception.
Mr. Campbell, on the other hand, knew from the
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inception that he was making up fraudulent papers.
Do I have the right handle on this or not?
MS. BILINKAS: Yes, Your Honor, I do believe that,
generally, the bank involved here, the employees, the
individual who was above Ms. Wint, wanted to actually exercise
the loan program properly and took applicants that could get
loans, but the problem was -- is that Ms. Wint, along with her
co-conspirators, ultimately, took that level of trust provided
by the SBA and turned it into a scheme that just involved
greed --
THE COURT: Tell me how she did that, all right.
She sent people to apply -- nothing wrong with doing that,
right? They may qualify, they may not qualify. I don't think
she was that knowledgeable about whether somebody was
qualified or not. And, then, she found out afterwards that
these people were getting loans that they were not entitled
and she sort of blinked at it or she just, passively, maybe,
just went along with it, but somebody else had to approve of
it, finally; right?
MS. BILINKAS: Well, just with regards to whether
she knew there -- the PSR I believe it's paragraph 14 -- that
said that she assisted and directed applicants without
legitimate businesses to co-conspirators such as Mr. Campbell.
So I don't think it was an after the fact, oh, I realized last
Friday I approved a loan that was illegitimate. I think,
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while there were, I'm sure, applicants that she thought had
legitimate businesses and sent to some of the co-conspirators,
there became a plan and a scheme, within the bank to, then,
bring on tax preparers to help out --
THE COURT: Maybe. Yeah, well, kind of a mixed bag
type of thing. It's hard to really pin your fingers on this.
What else would you like me to consider from the
Government's perspective?
MS. BILINKAS: Also, while she received $25,000, I
just do want to follow up on that point of the scheme did
involve once the applicants/borrowers received money into
their bank accounts at this bank, that's when withdraws were
made at the direction of Ms. Wint and other co-conspirators,
but in regards to other things to consider, which was
considered for Mr. Campbell as well, it was just the general
deterrence with regards to these cases.
The PPP and idle programs by the SBA relied upon
good faith of these lenders, the integrity of these lenders,
and the integrity of the public to be honest and forthcoming
in executing this program during a global pandemic, so I do
that think it is important for the Court to send a message
that there are consequences for defrauding these federal
programs.
THE COURT: So, you know, I see some differences
here, some more, some less than Mr. Campbell. I want to treat
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co-conspirators somewhat equally, though there were
differences here, yes, but I'm thinking about really imposing
the same type of sentence I imposed upon Mr. Campbell, and is
there a reason for me not to do that?
MR. HART: Well, Your Honor, I would say that my
client is now 55 years old. She is a grandmother. She is
basically financially ruined by this -- the guilty plea that
she's taking in this case. She -- her career is ruined.
Currently, she is doing some childcare out of her home,
including her grandchildren -- two of her sons are in the
gallery. If they can just raise their hands. Two adult
children, so she helps raise their children, as well as some
other children in her apartment. You know, for her to be
incarcerated for any period of time, I think, would be onerous
not only to her, but to her family members, extended family,
grandchildren and I ask the Court -- I know the Court is
considering that the impact of someone who is 55 years old,
who has never been in any trouble before, never spent a day in
jail, or even a month in jail, could have a devastating impact
on her.
THE COURT: Well, I could impose, you know, a
considerable amount of home confinement here, in lieu of any
incarceration and it may well be that that's the right thing
to do here because her personal situation is different than
Mr. Campbell and you just pointed out her family circumstances
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and her background and I considered all of that, so I'm not
going to impose an incarceratory sentence here, but I'm going
to impose two years of supervised release, but as a condition
of supervised release, she's going to be spending a year in
home confinement, and she'll be able to take care of her
children, and I think that -- to me, that's significant
punishment.
MR. HART: Sorry, she is just asking -- I know the
answer, but she's asking about medical appointments.
THE COURT: Of course. Probation supervises these
things, and if there's a reason, naturally, to be released to
go to a doctor, they do that. And they also will consider --
there are people who have religious needs as well who are
accommodated, we do that of course. If somebody is employed,
sometimes, we even allow them to do that, but that's not the
situation here.
But I think that sitting at home for a year with her
children and with her family, whatever, is a significant
amount of punishment here, so I think that's what I'm going to
do with her. But before I do that, I want to hear from her,
because I have to hear from the defendant before I impose
sentence, and she may talk me out of this.
You can speak to me. I'm inclined to give you a big
break in terms of not putting you in jail. You did something
here which is very foolish. You knew about it. I do think
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you were caught between a rock and a hard place to some extent
here. I have a sense of that. It doesn't excuse your
behavior. You knew what was going on, but you can speak to me
now before sentence is officially imposed if you would like
to.
MR. HART: Take your time.
THE COURT: You don't have to, but it's your right.
THE DEFENDANT: I apologize. As I said, I
apologize. And as I said, some of the people, those were my
personal friends, my hairdresser, and I did recommend them for
the loan. I really did. And, understand, my manager is
Mr. Sheenford (ph), but what was told to the rest of the
employee was not correct, and some of the loans that were
done, only the manager knew about it because only she had to
override. Only everything went on her desk, but I do
apologize, Your Honor. I really do.
THE COURT: I think you're sincere.
So I'm going to impose a sentence of supervised
release for two years with the condition being that you will
have home confinement for nine months, I think that's
sufficient. There's a $100 special assessment, which you have
to pay. I'm not going to fine you. You don't have the
ability to pay a fine. And you will think about the fact that
what you did was wrong and weigh what we call 3553(a) factors
and the nature of your crime, which you have spoken about
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already, against what, otherwise, was a law-abiding life.
You've had some tough times in your life. I've considered
that.
I've considered your economic circumstances, the
fact that there are enormous collateral consequences that are
attached here, and you will sit at home for nine months and
your children can be there with you to comfort you, and you
are going to be punished because of that, but it's not going
to be the same as being in jail, but you have to be at home
confined, and it's serious, but it's doable, and I think that
we will also have these special conditions of supervised
release -- well, there are, actually, no special conditions of
supervised release here, so I'm not going to impose them, but
there are general conditions of supervised release, which your
lawyer knows all about, which will be part of the judgment as
well.
And I just hope that, you know, that you're able to
make a good future for yourself under difficult circumstances.
I understand how difficult it's going to be for you, but
you've got to really try hard to do that. And do not be
tempted because you are going through difficult times to
commit any unlawful acts. You don't want to be motivated to
doing that. That's just going to be the wrong thing to do.
I think a hundred hours of community service is also
indicated here as well. You will have a chance to give back
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to the community, and the Probation Department will govern
that and regulate that and find out exactly how you can best
contribute to the community.
And you have your family here, which is supportive
of you. I think you will be okay. I feel badly for you, but
you have to really realize what you did was terrible, and you
will think about that during the nine months that you are
going to be in confinement, although at home and not in jail.
Did I inadvertently forget anything? I don't think
so. Ms. Bilinkas?
MS. BILINKAS: No, Your Honor. We will work on the
restitution aspect.
THE COURT: Work on the restitution thing and come
to an agreement on that, okay?
Mr. Hart, thank you for your cooperation.
MR. HART: Thank you, Judge.
THE COURT: That completes the sentence.
THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: Actually, it's time served,
right? Time served plus three years of supervised release?
Or is it --
THE COURT: It should be technically time served.
THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: And three years.
THE COURT: Yes. Plus two years of supervised
release with the condition of nine months of home confinement,
okay?
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And the same thing with the other one.
MR. HART: Thank you, Judge.
(Matter concluded.)
*
*
*
*
*
I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from the
record of proceedings in the above-entitled matter.
/s/ Denise Parisi
November 29, 2022
_________________________________ ________________
DENISE PARISI
DATE
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