Opinion ID: 619765
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Trial Evidence as to Weinstein Account

Text: The government first called John Hickey, an investigations manager for the corporate fraud unit of the bank that processed the Weinstein account on behalf of WM Funds. Hickey identified and discussed a series of exhibits. Exhibit 1 was the Weinstein account application. The application listed Weinstein, Stringer, and Defendant Brown as tenants by entirety. The application bore their purported signatures and listed their social security numbers and birth dates. The account holders' address was 170 Mapledale Lane, College Park, Georgia, and the application listed two phone numbers, one with a California area code, and the other with a Georgia area code. Clark was named the investment professional. The application included a voided copy of a check for Capitol City Bank. The check stated the account was owned by a James Brown, 170 Maple Dale Lane in College Park, Georgia. Exhibits 2 and 3 were two U.S. Treasury checks, which were payable to Weinstein and which had been attached to the Weinstein account application for deposit. The checks, purportedly endorsed by Weinstein, totaled $297,435.83. During the course of Hickey's investigation of the Weinstein account, Hickey concluded that Weinstein had not authorized the checks to be deposited into the Weinstein account. The account was thus not funded. The government also called Weinstein's accountant Gregory Lacombe to testify. Lacombe had provided tax and financial consulting services to Weinstein from 1990 until Weinstein's death. In 2002, Lacombe assisted Weinstein in obtaining tax refund checks for the 1977, 1978, and 1979 tax years. Although the original refund checks were issued and mailed around February or March 2003, Weinstein never received them. Lacombe identified the previously introduced Exhibits 2 and 3 as Weinstein's tax refund checks, dated February 28, 2003, for tax years 1977 and 1978. Lacombe had reported the missing checks to the IRS, and the IRS reissued them later that year, one by direct deposit and one by hard copy. Weinstein received the reissued checks. Lacombe testified that he was personally familiar with Weinstein's signature. Lacombe stated that the signatures on the two original U.S. Treasury checks and the Weinstein account application were not Weinstein's. However, the endorsement on the hard copy reissued check, which was introduced as an exhibit, was Weinstein's signature. Additionally, Lacombe testified that the Weinstein application listed the wrong social security number for Weinstein. Next, IRS coordinator Gloria Jackson testified that two U.S. Treasury checks, totaling $297,435.83, were issued for tax refunds to Weinstein in February 2003. They were later cancelled, and new checks were issued in May and July 2003.