You may remember our coverage of the federal prosecution of Stanley Cohen on a charge of failing to file federal income tax returns for several years.
Cohen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, starting January 2015. It appears Cohen was just released, though it’s unclear if it is to a halfway house or some other arrangement.
Cohen was a particularly flamboyant character. Cohen was termed “Hamas lawyer” because of his love for and allegiance to Hamas:
Despite his supporters’ claims that it was a political prosecution, the proof offered by the prosecution, which Cohen admitted could be proven, demonstrated a prolonged and multi-layered scheme to conceal cash income as part of his law practice. Part of the scheme was laid out in the plea transcript:
18 Next the government would have called a witness who19 would have testified that the witness would be contacted by20 the defendant periodically. He would tell the witness that21 someone would be bringing cash on behalf of his law business,22 and instruct the witness to go to the Speedway Convenience23 Plaza located near the Akwesasne Indian Reservation in24 Northern New York. Once there the witness was directed to25 cause a wire transfer of cash to be made from a MoneyGram1 terminal at that location in the defendant’s name and2 transferring cash to the defendant’s credit card account. On3 occasion the defendant would direct this witness to wire4 transfer only a portion of the cash and to take the other5 portion to locations where individuals on or near the6 Akwesasne Reservation to hold for the defendant until he7 could come and pick it up in person.8 Virtually all of the MoneyGram wire transfers were9 in amounts less than $10,000. They also were in amounts of10 thousands of dollars, many of them between 7,000 and $9,700.11 Those wire transfers took place from October of 2004 through12 December of 2008 and totaled $643,693.09. And the government13 would have produced testimony and official records of14 MoneyGram to establish that fact.
Before heading off to prison, Cohen said he would rather spend 18 months in prison than dine with a Zionist.
While in prison, Cohen blogged at Caged But Undaunted.
Based on his Twitter stream, which was silent while he was in prison, Cohen not only is out of prison, he has not lost any of his flair for the English language:
He was quick to tweet an image of him with Hamas co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin:
As well as an image of Israel soldier Gilad Shalit in the custody of Hamas just before his release from captivity in exchange for over 1000 Palestinian prisoners, including some of the worst mass murderers.
Let me guess, Cohen thinks of himself as a prisoner of war? Self-aggrandizement much?
One open issue is what will happen to his law license now that he is a convicted felon. Currently, he is suspended from practice pursuant to court order:
I guess that will be the next part of the story.
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