Most Scandalous Trials of the Century
The Who's Who Worldwide Registry Tragedy


5113
1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X
3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, : CR 96 1016(S-1)
4 v. : U.S. Courthouse
5 Uniondale, New York BRUCE W. GORDON, WHO'S WHO
6 WORLD WIDE REGISTRY, INC., : STERLING WHO'S WHO, INC.,
7 TARA GARBOSKI, ORAL FRANK : OSMAN, LAURA WEITZ, ANNETTE
8 HALEY, SCOTT MICHAELSON, : and MARTIN
9 REFFSIN, :    TRANSCRIPT OF TRIAL
10 Defendants. :February 20, 1998
11 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X 1:30 o'clock p.m.

12 BEFORE:

13 HONORABLE ARTHUR D. SPATT, U.S.D.J. and a jury
14 APPEARANCES:
15 For the Government: ZACHARY W. CARTER
16 United States Attorney One Pierrepont Plaza
17 Brooklyn, New York 11201
By: RONALD G. WHITE, ESQ.
18 CECIL SCOTT, ESQ. Assistant U.S. Attorneys
19 For the Defendants: NORM AN TRABULUS, ESQ.
20 For Bruce W. Gordon
170 Old Country Road, Suite 600
21 Mineola, New York 11501

22 EDWARD P. JENKS, ESQ.
For Who's Who Worldwide
23 Registry, Inc. and
Sterling Who's, Who, Inc.
24 332 Willis Avenue
Mineola, New York 11501
25
(cont'd)


HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
5114

1 APPEARANCES (cont'd):

2 GARY SCHOER, ESQ. For Tara Garboski
3 6800 Jericho Turnpike
Syosset, New York 11791
4
ALAN M. NELSON, ESQ.
5 For Oral Frank Osman
3000 Marcus Avenue
6 Lake Success, New York 11042

7 WINSTON LEE, ESQ.
For Laura Weitz
8 319 Broadway
New York, New York 10007
9
MARTIN GEDULDIG, ESQ.
10 For Annette Haley
400 South Oyster Bay Road
11 Hicksville, New York 11801

12 JAMES C. NEVILLE, ESQ.
For Scott Michaelson
13 225 Broadway
New York, New York 10007
14
THOMAS F.X. DUNN, ESQ.
15 For MrShortcut,
150 Nassau Street
16 New York, New York 10038

17 JOHN S. WALLENSTEIN, ESQ.
For Martin Reffsin 18 215 Hilton Avenue
Hempstead, New York 11551
19

20 Court Reporter: HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR
United States District Court
21 Two Uniondale Avenue
Uniondale, New York 11553
22 (516) 485-6558

23
Proceedings recorded by mechanical stenography, transcript
24 produced by Computer-Assisted Transcription
25

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
5115

1 A F T E R N O O N S E S S I O N

2

3 (The following takes place in the absence of the

4 jury.)

5 THE COURT: Good afternoon.

6 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, good afternoon.

7 I want to put one thing on the record.

8 THE COURT: Sure.

9 Where is Mr. Wallenstein? Where is

10 Mr. Geduldig?

11 Someone go out to get them.

12 MR. TRABULUS: While they are doing that, I have

13 a Rule 17 subpoena, Rule 17(b) and (c) subpoena that I ask

14 you to sign.

15 THE COURT: Is everybody here now?

16 MR. WALLENSTEIN: Mr. Lee is on his way down.

17 THE CLERK: Geduldig is still missing.

18 THE COURT: You can all sit down.

19 (Whereupon, at this time there was a pause in the

20 proceedings.)

21 THE COURT: I am signing this subpoena. However,

22 it calls for information which may not be admissible at

23 the trial. It calls for mailing lists that were used by
24 Marquis Who's Who, in essence.
25 MR. TRABULUS: I was not trying to introduce the

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
5116

1 mailing lists themselves, just reference to their use.

2 THE COURT: Whatever, records or otherwise, I

3 don't know if it is admissible in this trial.

4 You better get some author ity that says because

5 other people may commit frauds, I can do it, or that it is

6 custom and usage in the industry to make these

7 misrepresentations -- alleged misrepresentations.

8 MR. TRABULUS: That's the line I was thinking

9 about.

10 THE COURT: I have concern about that. It is

11 custom and usage in the home improvement line to make

12 fraudulent bank loans. Does that make it admissible in

13 the trial and acceptable practice? Because the practice

14 itself is not legal, why should it be admissible.

15 In other words, is it a defense?

16 You better get some law on that. And here is the

17 subpoena.

18 MR. TRABULUS: Thank you.

19 THE COURT: Where is Mr. Geduldig?

20 I am going into the jurors and thank them that

21 they are here on time, and tell them I have held everybody

22 up.

23 Don't strike me down.
24 Any objection?

25 MR. TRABULUS: No.

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
5117

1 MR. NEVILLE: Thank you, your Honor.

2 MR. JENKS: Thank you; no.

3 MR. WHITE: No objection.

4 (The following takes place in the jury room.)

5 THE COURT: How nice to see all of you together

6 in this spacious, ample room, where you can have all the

7 space.

8 I have been tied up in something, and I will be

9 tied up a few more minutes. I want to thank you for being

10 prompt and punctual. Forgive me of keeping you waiting

11 for this period of time. I wanted to say hello to you and

12 welcome you again. I am very happy to have you.

13 A JUROR: We are happy to be here.

14 THE COURT: Good.

15

16 (Whereupon, at this time the following takes

17 place in open court.)

18 THE COURT: Good afternoon, Mr. Geduldig.

19 MR. GEDULD IG: I apologize, Judge. I think this

20 is the first time I have ever been late, and it is today,

21 which is particularly bad.

22 THE COURT: The jurors buzzed at 25 after 1:00

23 that they were here and ready to go. We should be here
24 before time. I will not lecture. I am not a school
25 teacher, but because of the number of people, especially,

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
5118

1 it is important to be here on time. I don't like to keep

2 the jurors waiting. They are a very dedicated group.

3 They are entitled to this kind of courtesy.

4 MR. GEDULDIG: They are, Judge.

5 THE COURT: Bring in the jury.

6 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, earlier this week your

7 Honor asked the government to produce to the defense any

8 tapes Mr. West made in connection with the Garden City

9 hotel, in connection with the Oxford Who's Who

10 investigation. We retrieved that file from the closed

11 file of the postal inspection. We have the tapes. We

12 have a copy made for each of the defense attorneys. From

13 the way it looks, the sounds of things, Mr. West will be

14 here on Monday in any event.

15 THE COURT: Have you turned it over to them?

16 MR. WHITE: We just picked it up.

17 THE COURT: At a break show them what you have.

18 MR. WHITE: The one thing I wanted to ad was that

19 the tapes were all contained in the Oxford Who's Who file,

20 which was the enclosed files.

21 Some of them were either mislabeled or misfiled,

22 and in addition to Oxford employees, there are some people

23 on the tape who were former Worldwide employees as well.
24 THE COURT: Which you didn't know about?
25 MR. WHITE: Which I didn't know about. And I

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

5119

1 listened to it last night at midnight.

2 THE COURT: You are now definitely turning it

3 over?

4 MR. WHITE: Of course.

5 MR. SCHOER: Tapes we have not seen?

6 MR. WHITE: Yes.

7 THE COURT: You will have an opportunity to see

8 them, certainly over the weekend, if not today. And you

9 can use it over the weekend if you wish.

10 MR. WHITE: Nothing pertaining to these

11 defendants.

12 MR. TRABULUS: Any other 3500 material relating

13 to Mr. West that might have been in that file other than

14 tapes? Things may be 3500 material relating to his own

15 business, or the tapes which we know now which is Who's

16 Who Worldwide?

17 MR. WHITE: The tapes were kept separate from the

18 paper files. The paper files are on their way. They were

19 separate. I understand they are not related, because

20 anything relating to We st, was in the West Who's Who file,

21 not the Oxford file.

22 THE COURT: You didn't know anything about that

23 until now?
24 MR. WHITE: Yes, your Honor, and I was quite
25 perturbed.

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
5120

1 THE COURT: You are turning it over?

2 MR. WHITE: Yes.

3 THE COURT: Let me ask, are you students back

4 there?

5 A SPECTATOR: Yes.

6 THE COURT: What school are you from?

7 A SPECTATOR: Tuoro Law School.

8 MR. TRABULUS: The young man with the necktie is

9 my son. He wanted to see a portion of the trial. He has

10 the week off.

11 THE COURT: He is in Tuoro Law School?

12 MR. TRABULUS: No, he is in high school.

13 THE COURT: A future lawyer?

14 MR. TRABULUS: Maybe.

15 MR. JENKS: I can't believe he made him wear a

16 tie.


With more than 12,000 pages of transcript, many pieces are split into smaller pages,
You can find a full version of Feb 20th transcript here


Most Scandalous Trials of the Century   - The Who's Who Worldwide Registry Tragedy

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