Tomorrow will be an interesting day. marycummins1 will be live tweeting at https://twitter.com/MaryCummins1 if I can't live post here.
Tuesday morning started with testimony from Michelson defending his position for bringing the lawsuit to his "good Friend" Steve Cooley, the then head D.A. of Los Angeles. He explained his role with the Found Animal Foundation and why he was at the press conference for animal cruelty. He said he was trying to save animals and at that particular meeting they had arrested a "really bad guy", who abused a dog and also had cocaine and guns. When questioned about the D.A.'s luncheon in the letter shown to the Jury, the D.A. objected, which was overruled. Michelson and many high level officials were invited and he paid for the luncheon. He then began with a completely unsupported story about Campbell paying Powers a $1,000 a month salary for years as manager of C & M, even though it was already proven, by amended contract, that Michelson was the actual manager, not Powers. Another new story out of the blue from Michelson.
He then told the story of meeting Andres Marten who became his new farm manager and how the properties were only planted to 30%. Again this didn't prove anything or have anything to do with the five counts of "grand theft".
He's now trying to cover his mistake he made in his testimony yesterday so he changes his story to the Defense lawyer. Originally he claimed he sent all the money in advance to purchase the properties from Powers but now he realized this might go against his issue with the statue of limitations so today he began stating that he only wired deposits and paid for the properties in whole much later. So here he impeaches himself again.
The defense lawyer asks him again how many acres he had sold and again he says most of the properties. When asked how much he has left he says he has 2,000 acres left. Yesterday he claimed he had invested $36M into all these properties. Today he was asked the same question and he now says he's invested, $43.8M into this plantation.
Defense lawyer asks him, "did you pay for all these properties", yes was the answer. "Did you receive all the titles to these properties", yes was also the answer. Asked again on how many acres he owns still he says, "Less than 2,000 acres".
Next witness is David Cohen his business manager since 2005. He says he met Michelson in 2000 but started working for him full time until 2005 advising him and running and managing all his businesses including his accounting. Started trying to get Powers to give him his records but said Powers was disorganized and so he at one point yelled on the phone at Mr. Powers saying he was going to sue Powers for $20M if he didn't give him the bank records. Michelson couldn't figure out how much profits Powers was making and he wanted to know because he didn't want Powers to make any money. This is typical Gary. Only he can make money. Everyone else has to work for free. Then he said he participated in hiring the farm manager, Andres Marten, in C.R.
On cross the defense attorney asked him about how long he worked for Michelson. A: 9 years. Q: did you run the financial business and accounting of C & M and the teak farms in Central America and Costa Rica? A: Yes. Q: How much was invested totally in the Costa Rican Teak farms?" A: $20 Million dollars, Q: Michelson is the largest teak plantation owner in the world?", A: NO, Q: He's not at least one of the largest plantation owners in the world?", "No". Q: Please turn to exhibit 114. You gave an interview to the magazine, "Financial Adviser" (which I posted here) where you state and claim that Michelson is the largest teak plantation owner in the world, isn't that correct?", A: well that's what it says here, but I didn't write that". Q: "But you gave the interview didn't you so did you say that?", A. Yes, but that was in 2011". Q: So in 2011 it was the largest plantation in the world but not now?"A: That's right. Q: you recently sold some of the teak farms correct?", A: Not in Panama only in Costa Rica.Q: How much of that land did you sell in Costa Rica?", A: about half. Q: about half, so does that mean Michelson still owns the other half of his farms in Costa Rica?", A: That's correct, he owns about half of them, we sold off just the half in C.R. but kept all the farms in Panama. NO further questions was the response from the Defense lawyer.
So here his own adviser has finally spoken the truth to the actual amount invested in the teak farms, $20M and Michelson claims he sold them for $32M and he still has half of his properties. Let's see, that's a $12M dollar profit from the sale of half of the properties so can we assume he might be able to get another $32M dollars from the rest? That would make him a profit of at least $44M. Bottom line here is, there is no loss, the D.A. has not reached the burden of proof for the People to show that a crime of "grand theft" occurred or that it isn't time barred or the fact that Michelson has just impeached himself so technically the Judge should strike his entire testimony and dismiss this case.
Wednesday will be a big day with the People resting their case. Then the Defense can really go after Michelson and his constant lies. What a JOKE, Powers being paid a $1,000 salary by his friend Campbell. Really??? With no proof Michelson expects people to believe that? I heard that Andres Marten was making over $30,000 per month salary and had a side business selling Michelson clone teak seedlings from his own farms owned by Marten, making even more money on the side off of Michelson.
I would bet by the time this lawsuit is over, David Cohen will be looking for a new Job as well as Marten. Hopefully they have saved up all their money because Michelson will be suing them next for not lying to the court, like Cooper. Well maybe Cooper didn't really lie, but he was trying really hard to protect Michelson, his good buddy. Cooper will probably get to keep his Job. If the D.A. loses, Michelson will probably sue them too that's why they are so afraid. Michelson will probably demand that Robert Knowles he fired or at least demoted.
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