The Coin.MX (CMX) trial currently prosecuting New Jersey pastor Trevon Gross and ex-CMX employee Yuri Lebedev for bribery and fraud intensified this week as a U.S. Secret Service agent was ordered to testify and defendant Gross took the stand.
Yes, Pastor Trevon Gross, who is charged with accepting $150,000 USD in bribes to keep quiet about the shady operations of the now defunct bitcoin exchange, took the stand to defend himself. This is not exactly what most attorney's prefer when defending a client. This allows the prosecution to cross-examine and anyone under that kind of stress can easily make mistakes and look guilty even when they are not.
Unfortunately there was little it could really hurt at this point with the government dumping convincing evidence over the last few weeks, dinbits.com has been following the entire trial and from what has taken place thus far, unless the jury slept through most of the litigation, Gross has something to worry about.
Trevon Gross, Saint
Gross took the stand Wednesday and claimed to be your basic everyday "blindly-innocent-good-Samaritan" to the point the only thing missing was the materialization of a golden halo over the defendants head.
Gross said that Hope FCU viewed the entire ordeal as a “blessing” and their focus was all the good it could do in helping the “unbanked” get closer to their dream of a bank account and/or better banking offers.
You know, because that's what allot of people sit around all day and worry about... "is there food on the table", "are the lights going to get shut-off", and of course "I simply cannot live without an account to put my cash in at a bank so they can take fees for themselves, oh my oh my what am I going to do"?
Gross 100% denied he had any clue that CMX was an “unlawful bitcoin exchange” and thought the money was for something else so they could build the credit union... for good-Samaritan reasons off course. The same reason his church dumped tons of money into the place.
Seriously, when does a church get into high finance and big banking? Even the testimony to defend himself sounds bad. Really bad. Makes you wonder why his attorney allowed this to happen.
Then things got even more interesting with U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan ordering Secret Service Agent Emily Beyer, to testify. Beyer was called out last week by witnesses who claim the agent told him to:
“take a nice little bonus” out of Coin.mx before it's shut down by the feds. - Secret Service Agent Emily Beyer (allegedly)
Financial investigations executive John Rollins (RSM US, LLP) also provided testimony about how money flowed from Coin.mx interests into Hope FCU including accusations that the funds were allegedly spent by the pastor on paying off debt, eating out, car payments, pool care, and .....
...wait for it ....
Massages!
A pretty picture this does not paint and by the way things look at the moment, there may not be a happy ending at the end of this trial.
Agent Denial
Despite the rock solid evidence of defendant eyewitnesses stating otherwise, Agent Beyer denied of accusations.
“I never would have said 'take money from the business,'” Beyer said. “Based on my 22 years of being an agent, I know how I speak to people.”
Yeah ... but .... it's not how one speaks to another, it's how another understands those words. Just saying.
Conveniently, Beyer claimed memory-loss of the conversation but did remember with crystal clarity that she didn't do it. Other folks said she did.
Somebody, is full of shit.
This is no surprise however and was the expected response because frankly, it's jut not very often law enforcement officials and federal agents hop on the stand and claim they did something illegal when they get asked. Even if they did do it.
Why would they? They always get their word taken over anyone else so they can just lie and get away with it if need be.
Not to say this agent lied and to be honest I don't think it matters really because it's doubtful anything is going to swoop down and save the day for Gross... even if he didn't do it, and that's a BIG "if", everything so far is very damaging to Gross's case and he appears guilty as hell.
That, however, is for a jury to decide and part of that will be how they viewed Gross's testimony in defending himself. At the moment the only party that could possibly be happy about that outcome would be the prosecution.
It's really sad to see bitcoin get drug through this mud because this case has little to do with bitcoin. This case has to do with several idiots that would be destined in trouble eventually anyway ... and that's with or without bitcoin being involved.
That, however, is for a jury to decide and part of that will be how they viewed Gross's testimony in defending himself. At the moment the only party that could possibly be happy about that outcome would be the prosecution.
It's really sad to see bitcoin get drug through this mud because this case has little to do with bitcoin. This case has to do with several idiots that would be destined in trouble eventually anyway ... and that's with or without bitcoin being involved.
For an in-depth analysis of the trial, charges, and parties involved, visit our February report.
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