Document 6163/20

Case 1:20-cr-00336-PAE Document 6163/20 Filed 08/24/22 Page 75 of 117 A-5918 CAC3PARC 16 1 MS. DAVIS: Yes, please, your Honor. 2 Good afternoon, your Honor. I'm glad to see that 3 Mr. Shechtman has conceded that other than this particular 4 area, Mr. Parse did in fact receive what can only be described 5 as a platinum plated defense with a defense team that most 6 defendants can only dream of. 7 MR. SHECHTMAN: I don't think I quite went that far, 8 your Honor. 9 MS. DAVIS: I do think, though, that had Mr. Shechtman 10 been here at trial and seen the forces that were mustered in 11 Mr. Parse's favor, he would have to admit that it is a rare 12 scene in such a courtroom for an individual defendant. 13 Your Honor, the crux of it is that defendant Parse is 14 seeking to be rewarded now for the strategic choices of his 15 attorney regarding Catherine Conrad and their knowledge of her. 16 Choices for which he has already benefited in the form of 17 acquittals on the conspiracy and the tax evasion counts. We 18 submit, as we said in our papers, that we believe that 19 Mr. Shechtman has met neither prong of the Strickland standard 20 in that he cannot show ineffective assistance of counsel and he 21 cannot show prejudice. 22 This Court in its ruling on the motion for new trial 23 regarding Catherine Conrad has already found that the Brune & 24 Richard law firm knew that Catherine Conrad and Juror No. 1 25 were the same person and chose to gamble with the jury that SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 DOJ-OGR-00009494 --- PAGE BREAK --- Case 1:20-cr-00336-PAE Document 6163/20 Filed 08/24/22 Page 78 of 117 A-5919 CAC3PARC 17 1 they had. Your Honor, that in our view ends the inquiry 2 completely. That finding alone is sufficient to defeat a 3 finding of ineffective assistance of counsel. 4 The Second Circuit has made very clear, as have other 5 circuits, that you cannot as a defense counsel basically engage 6 in a heads-we-win-tails-you-lose strategy when it comes to your 7 trial conduct. We know that based on the documentary evidence 8 and the evidence that was adduced at the hearing as well as the 9 evidence that was put forth in the affidavit of Susan Brune, 10 that the Brune & Richard law firm had the suspension opinion 11 prior to voir dire, and chose not to bring it to this Court's 12 attention. As we all know engaged in subsequent investigation 13 regarding Juror No. 1, when Theresa Trzskoma started to have 14 certain doubts about her after the receipt of Juror No. 1's 15 note. 16 It's quite clear that this is not a case where the 17 defense counsel had been given a piece of information and did 18 nothing. That's quite, quite not what happened here. In fact, 19 we know that prior to voir dire, they discussed the suspension 20 opinion, they chose not to bring it to the Court's attention. 21 Instead relying simply on the voir dire answers, even though as 22 this Court pointed out, far more trivial issues were aired by 23 all of the parties, by the government and indeed by the Court, 24 in terms of trying to figure out who would be good jurors. 25 They chose not to bring that to the Court's attention then SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 DOJ-OGR-00009495 --- PAGE BREAK --- Case 1:20-cr-00336-PAE Document 6163/20 Filed 08/24/22 Page 80 of 117 A-5923 21 CAC3PARC 1 So it's quite clear the jury was entitled to infer that he knew 2 that this was being done to change the results of the tax 3 losses. He also knew, and there is more than a plethora of 4 evidence on this, that each of these tax shelter transactions 5 had to be completed by year end. And that's why, as Mr. Bair 6 testified and others testified, it was a real effort. 7 Sandra Burnside, you might recall, Mr. Daugerdas' 8 secretary, testified about the avalanche of work that went on 9 in December at the end of the tax years in order to finalize 10 these transactions. Well, that avalanche of work hit the 11 offices of Mr. Parse's desk. And as Carrie Yackee testified, 12 Carrie Yackee's desk as well. 13 So to suggest that he was not aware this was being 14 done in order to defraud the IRS as the true results of the 15 transaction we submit is unsupportable. 16 There was a suggestion in Mr. Shechtman's brief, I 17 don't think he touched on it today, but the suggestion was that 18 these transactions, these as transactions were approved by 19 Deutsche Bank. 20 Well, first of all, Carrie Yackee's testimony here 21 that she was going to Mr. Parse for approval on these 22 transactions. There is also evidence to suggest that anyone 23 other than Mr. Parse and Carrie Yackee at Deutsche Bank knew 24 the full picture of what went on, which was that these 25 transactions for these particular taxpayers were tax shelter SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 DOJ-OGR-00009499