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Maximilien Reynolds pleads guilty to weapons charges

On Tuesday, November 13, Maximilien Reynolds, 21, of Rumson, New Jersey, pled guilty to one count of causing false statements to be made in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, and one count of possessing unregistered firearms including a semi-automatic rifle, a homemade silencer, and a homemade bomb, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Reynolds will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy on March 11, 2019.

Reynolds currently resides in Ithaca, New York. He is a part-time student at Tompkins-Cortland Community College on a leave of absence from Cornell University.

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Manhattan attorney pleads guilty to cyberstalking

NSFW

David Waldman was arrested on June 1 after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged him with cyberstalking and transmitting interstate threats in connection with a four-year cyberstalking and threats campaign directed at a woman who he dated for four months in 2014. 

Following his arrest, Waldman, 49, of Inwood, was detained on the grounds that he posed a danger to the community. Around two weeks later, a federal judge ordered him to be detained pending trial. 

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Barry Schwartz pleads guilty to securities fraud conspiracy charge

Image: Cutest Dog Competition – YouTube

Updated December 6, 2019

Around 10 months after a grand jury handed down indictments against the founders of the Starship Snacks company, Barry Schwartz, 72, pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in Manhattan federal court.

Under a plea deal with the government, Schwartz agreed to a sentencing range of 41 to 51 months in prison, a fine of $15,000 to $150,000, and restitution of $2,163,214. The government agreed to drop all other charges pending against him.

Schwartz is scheduled to be sentenced on December 12, 2019.

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Michael Arnstein sentenced to 9 months in prison

Video: The Natural Sapphire Company – YouTube

On October 19, businessman Michael Arnstein, 41, of Kailua, Hawaii, was sentenced to 9 months in prison for conspiring to forge a federal judge’s signature in connection with a scheme to get websites containing negative reviews of his jewelry company removed from Google search results.

Arnstein is the owner of a jewelry company that was founded by his grandfather Walter Arnstein in 1939. The company is located in Manhattan with a satellite office in Sri Lanka. It specializes in sapphires and sapphire jewelry.

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Prison guard admits to smuggling contraband into NYC jail

The Metropolitan Correctional Center.

On August 24, former federal correctional officer Victor Casado, 35, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and to introduce contraband into prison. He also agreed to forfeit $26,500 worth of bribes to the government. Casado was a correctional officer at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a federal jail in Manhattan, from 2012 to 2018.

The smuggling scheme

In 2016 and 2017, Casado smuggled cellphones, alcohol, over-the-counter medications, and food into the MCC in exchange for bribe payments from inmates. The scheme is described in detail here.

In October 2017, one of the inmates pled guilty to bribing Casado and became a cooperating witness for the government. Read about the inmate’s case here.

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