Pastor Who Traded On Inside Information* Obtained By Ukrainian Hackers** Just Wanted To Travel Abroad For Totally Legit Religious Purposes

And not to, like, flee charges or anything.
Author:
Publish date:
Updated on

Amazingly, one judge said "Sure, go ahead, can I drive you to the airport? Honestly, it's no trouble, it's on my way to work. I just shoot down I-80 and I can be there in 10 minutes. You sure? You positive? Okay well if you need a ride on the way back, definitely give me a call, I'd be more than happy to pick you up. You've got my cell right? No I will not accept gas money, come on now, your money's no good here. Put it back because I'm not going to take it. All I ask is that you have your wife make me some of her famous vareniki with cherries. Deal? Deal."

...until another judge said, "Hi, I'm earth, have we met?"

A rare legal smackdown between federal judges resulted late Tuesday night with the freezing of the bail order freeing the pastor, Vitaly Korchevsky, head of the Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church in Brookhaven, Pa. A Brooklyn federal court judge overturned a Philaelphia magistrate judge’s order that would have freed the pastor on a $100,000 bond. Magistrate Judge Linda Carapacca agreed to the bond bail after the pastor’s wife told her Korchevsky’s travel abroad was part of his religious duties. But before the bond could be posted, Brooklyn federal Judge Brian Cogan stayed her order. Korchevsky will remain in custody until at least next week, after a bail hearing in Brooklyn. Korchevsky, a key suspect in a $100 million international insider-trading ring with strong ties to alleged hackers in Kiev, is a flight risk, prosecutors said...While not preaching, Korchevsky formed an “unholy alliance” with hackers who stole 150,000 corporate earnings reports before they were made public, it is alleged.

Pastor saved souls by day, stole millions at night: feds [NYP]

Related: Prosecutors Found A YouTube Video Of Hackers Selling Inside Information

*Alleged!
**Alleged, etc, etc, etc

Related

News

Members Of Insider Trading "Club" Were Good At Obtaining Material Non-Public Information, Not So Good At Playing It Cool On Conversations Recorded By The Feds

Later this week, Anthony Chiasson, a Level Global co-founder, and Todd Newman, a former Diamondback portfolio manager, will go to trial in Federal Court for allegedly making $67 million in ill-gotten gains, based on inside information they obtained about Nvidia Corp and Dell Inc. According to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Chiasson and Newman, who've both pleaded not guilty, were able to rack up all their profits by teaming up with a bunch of friends and forming an insider trading club, which is a lot like a book club or fight club in that they took roll, traded canapé duties, and drank Pinot Grigio, but different in that instead of discussing The Art Of Fielding or punching each other in the face, they spent every Monday night from 7 to 9 sharing material non-public information with each other. “This case describes a tight-knit circle of greed on the part of professionals willing to traffic in confidential information,” Bharara said when the charges were announced in January. “It was a circle of friends who essentially formed a criminal club, whose purpose was profit and whose members regularly bartered inside information.” In the beginning, when the club was first formed, there was a spirit of camaraderie, as the club members happily traded tips for everyone's mutual benefit. Unfortunately, things started to break down when some people agreed to cooperate with the government by recording their friends admitting wrongdoing, in exchange for leniency. Former Diamondback analyst Jesse Tortora, for instance, gave fellow club member Danny Kuo a call at the direction of the FBI on December 1, 2010, a conversation that Chiasson and Newman's lawyers are trying to use as evidence that Tortora, who will be testifying against them, lacks credibility, based on the fact that when asked by Kuo if his phone was being tapped, Tortora didn't say "Yup! Helping the Feds build a case against you, actually." “What’s happening, man?” Tortora asked during the call, according to a transcript prosecutors submitted to the court. “Dude, is your phone tapped?” Kuo replied. “Wait, is the phone tapped?” Tortora asked, adding, “Why do you ask that?” Despite losing major points for repeating the question-- you never repeat the question!-- and the extremely unconvincing "Oh, why do you ask" attempt to act natural and not like he was working for the government, Tortora ultimately recovered. After Kuo and Tortora discussed defense strategy to explain their trades were made after legitimate research, Kuo concluded the call with a final warning to Tortora about making future calls from a personal telephone, according to the transcript. “I would seriously invest in some quarters, and start calling from 7-Elevens,” Kuo said. Hedge Fund Founder Faces Jury as FBI Raids Yield Trial [Bloomberg]