Joseph Cammarata seems to be suffering from a severe case of “I’m the center of the universe” syndrome.

To that end on July 5th, Cammarata filed a pompous dummy-spit letter to the Judge hearing his case.

Get your popcorn ready and prepare to read a gloriously delicious meltdown.

Because it’s so good I’m just going to present Cammarata’s letter verbatim (I’ll even leave in the derail political rant).

For some context though, this was put together following Cammarata’s incarceration for four and a half months. During that time he’s been unable to secure adequate funding for his attorneys.

We’ve previously covered Cammarata’s initial arrest last December, and subsequent re-arrest when he was caught trying to flee the US.

Combined with a massive serving of self-importance and Broadway tier dramatics, you get this;

Preface from Cammarata’s brother Joseph:

Good Morning Honorable Judge Kenny,

Below is a letter from my brother, Joseph Cammarata. He is sending it to you himself, but wanted to make sure you had it ahead of the July 6th hearing.

My family and I, along with all of Joseph’s family, would write letters everyday to convince you to release him but we believe he is the only one that can prove his innocence.

Please take the time to read it and confirm receipt with me, his life depends on it.

Cammarata’s forwarded letter;

Dear Honorable Judge Kenney,

I write to you again from FDC Philadelphia where I remain wrongfully imprisoned, treated as an animal, and unable to defend myself in any way, which I have hinted to you previously and will now represent to you has been the government’s carefully orchestrated plan right from an allegedly wrongful indictment on October 28th, 2021.

Despite previously looking forward to a hearing on June 28th, it appears that yet another obstacle has arisen to prevent me from being able to use any of my frozen assets for my criminal attorney fees.

Therefore, I write you today to enter my appearance to represent myself pro-se in the criminal and civil cases.

I can no longer wait on any more delays, while I sit here enduring cruel and unusual punishment, which I will describe in detail to you (at and in-camera meeting), denied urgent medical care and have no way to possibly defend myself from even a small claims court case, never mind a life-ending criminal case.

I still have not seen a single page of the over 4 million pages of discovery delivered by the prosecution, coincidentally, just 2 days after they made sure that would be imprisoned again on March 10th, 2022 by being disingenuous to you and the court of appeals, as I will prove to you.

My consulting attorneys have been trying to obtain $2M for legal defense from the SEC for the past 4 months with no success and while I only have 3 months left until trial, I can no longer wait for legal representation money to be paid from my once $71M in frozen assets.

Let me ask you to please consider one thing, “What if I am innocent?” What if everything about me that you have seen for the last 31 years is accurate, showing that I have an impeccable reputation, career, was honest, hard-working, and never even charged with so much as rolling through a traffic stop sign.

After 31 years in the securities business without a single complaint or blemish in one of the most regulated industries in the world, I was very successful, again through honesty and hard work.

Even what Judge Goodman labeled as “atypical” from a man with a perfect background, history career and success, does it seem like something an already successful businessman would knowingly or overtly engage in?

Judge Goodman was also astute enough to realize that the prosecution had a malicious motivation to imprison me and as such provided obvious falsified documents, testimony and knowingly engaged in perjury.

When I challenged the authenticity and logic of the modified WhatsApp message from the cooperating co-defendant, Judge Goodman said to me, “Mr. Cammarata, I have above a high school education and can see what is going on here (Nov 9th, 2021 transcript) and subsequently issued me bail even knowing then that I am not flight risk.

As I try to prepare myself for trial ahead of the July 6th, 2022 hearing, I have three (3) agenda item that I would like to request be addressed by the Court as I am now pro-se, have no experience, and am requesting assistance with motion submission from the Court.

Since am in prison, I am unable to file any proper motions from prison and have no access to a discovery computer, no access to my files, discovery, pens, access dockets, a word processor (even the last letter to you cost me $40 to do it on trulincs), internet for the relativity database, and any other computer applications that are needed to review the 4M pages of discovery even if I was to receive them in here.

I am entitled to a fair trial and need a way to defend myself despite the Prosecution’s intent. In my current situation, it is impossible to defend myself, have a fair trial and I should not even be in here, if not for the Government’s misconduct and circus they brought to your court at the Revocation hearing.

I am requesting an immediate bill of particulars as it relates to any available information, documents, or testimony and early Jencks material from the Grand Jury indictment that was issued on October 28th, 2021.

I have strong evidence that suggests the Grand Jury was presented with falsified documents, inaccurate witness testimony and facts, and omitted exculpatory evidence about my lack of involvement in the AlphaPlus business.

I believe and represent to this Court, that based on the evidence, that it is suggested that the Grand Jury indictment, despite being poorly written, was wrongfully obtained against me.

In regards to my 4.5 months of pre-trial incarceration while being denied medical care, civil and human rights I have also been denied your Honor’s orders for access to a discovery computer, along with several Constitutional violations, making sure that there is no way for me to defend myself from prison.

Let me ask you why you think the government has fought so hard for pre-trial imprisonment in 4 different bail hearings and an appeal, what could the real reason be?

I will also represent to you that in this entire case and every hearing since November 4th, 2021, while I am in the fight for my life and had to remain silent the prosecution has engaged in fictional theatrics which have resulted in the what will likely be the most malicious and overwhelming prosecutorial misconduct the 3rd Circuit, and even the US, has ever seen.

As a pro-se defendant, I am well aware of the serious accusations I am making, and realize that you are likely turning red and angry at me again, but please ask yourself, what if I am right?

While many criminal defendants often have conspiracy theories and cite misconduct, mine are purely based on evidence, truth and data, not pixie dust and perjury like the government.

The items I raise here are some of the reasons that I had asked for an in-camera meeting with you, as I am trying to preserve privileged elements from being provided to the government prematurely at this time.

The second agenda item is asking for 10 minutes of the court’s time on July 6th, 2022. I am hereby requesting the 10 minutes for an immediate and evidentiary bail hearing, since I cannot file a proper motion without a computer, my files or discovery, so I will argue the bail motion orally from memory on Wednesday.

I promise you that in 10 minutes or less I will prove to you that in the revocation hearing and subsequent appeal, that the government knowingly provided the Courts with falsified documents, tampered with witnesses/evidence, committed multiple counts of perjury and most troubling, is that they intentionally and knowingly withheld “Critical” exculpatory evidence (and even further lied to your face about it on March 10th, 2022).

I will prove to you in just 10 minutes from all the proof that has already been submitted to the Courts.

I think that you would have to agree that if I confirm the gross misconduct allegations of even just the revocation hearing alone, that I should be immediately released on the same exact bail conditions of the two cooperating defendants.

The two cooperating defendants admitted to running the business (while I had no involvement) and admitted to committing some alleged crime that I am still unaware of and they did not spend single night in jail and I am already getting close to 6 months and have not been presented any actual evidence of any illegal conduct.

My last agenda item for the Court to consider is allowing me to bring some facts to light regarding the SEC civil complaint and related injunction.

In regards to this entire SEC civil case and injunction which curiously occurred the day after I was arrested and within five days of the very weak and poorly written Grand Jury indictment, the SEC complaint was even more poorly written, like an angry and jealous 14 year old child with no clear understanding of securities law.

Why would the SEC bring an immediate civil lawsuit with a baseless charge and absolutely no jurisdiction at all?

Could it be that for a securities fraud case, the government could freeze treble damages, joint and several, without any showing of any securities activity even by their own regulations?

Please recall that AlphaPlus was a debt collection service that merely sought to find its clients any funds available to them from previous class action settlements in which the clients, themselves, traded in securities many years previously.

AlphaPlus never “engaged in the purchase or sale of securities” (used as a verb), nor interacted with any national stock exchanges as required to be considered “securities”.

AlphaPlus had no involvement in any trading, was not registered or required to be registered with the SEC and never could have transacted in any “security”.

As your Honor pointed out, if the cooperating defendants did in fact engage in some kind of fraud “against the Court” it is impossible to have ever been any securities related business or securities fraud.

As if these actions are not malicious enough, the SEC and USAO were fully aware that its baseless and jurisdictionally deficient complaint could only impact me, and not the cooperating defendants.

It further “barred me from acting as CEO or board member of any public company”, which again conveniently was my only full time position for the previous 2 years up until my arrest.

This complaint not only cost me my reputation and career, but the $22M of INVU stock (at that time) was stripped from me because of this intentionally malicious, vindictive and targeted prosecution against me.

More importantly, this appears to be a structural error of law which is completely jurisdictionally deficient.

Then how could it be that despite the SEC freezing over $71M of my assets on November 4th and me fighting for over 8 months that there was a minimum of $35M of untainted money and now after 8 months, the SEC has lost over $42M in value and say that I never told them what was tainted or untainted, is more fictional theatrics.

It is preposterous that the SEC can make these allegations with me having the evidence, truth and data comprising at least 100 emails and multiple spreadsheets describing in great detail what was untainted, dating back to November of 2021.

Now after freezing over $71M, from 8 months ago, the SEC claims that there is nothing left for attorneys (after Merrill Lynch’s latest conveniently timed claim of $1.5M), all of this after not paying me a single dollar from my $71M of assets.

The only legal money the SEC begrudgingly “allowed” and was stipulated to was from Erik Cohen’s crypto account, after I heard he was trying to liquidate it and I asserted my 50% interest in that and the court issued only that paltry $350k for attorneys.

My family has gone in to debt trying to help me with attorneys, since I have been denied ANYTHING untainted out of $71M frozen, even though the alleged (and still unproven) $40M damages, show me only receiving a portion (approximately 1/3) of any alleged ill-gotten gains.

All of this, while my elderly parents and brother have paid over $400k trying to pay lawyers and expenses and are out of money.

My parents are trying to refinance their home to try to get me legal fees from the house that they lived in for 48 years, but have no income and cannot.

I had also been promised to be reimbursed for certain expenses by the SEC that I put on my credit cards and they then refused to pay and I lost both credit cards and my perfect credit of over 31 years.

If this denial of legal fees for criminal defense representation after I did in fact show every penny of every alleged ill-gotten gain, is not only a flagrant violation of 6th amendment rights, then there is at a minimum another clear structural legal error in the process to date.

This is especially troubling, after the Government maliciously refused my Merrill Lynch financial advisor to continue to manage my accounts (as he had for 18 years), maintain my hard assets, continue to deny me even a penny of living expenses in 8 months, caused me to lose insurance on Sandy Cay ($11M in assets in peak of hurricane season) and lost $42M of value for the “alleged” victims (which will be $53M out of the $71M if a hurricane hits before November 1st).

Most of the SEC’s gross negligence has occurred during the last 4 months, while I sit in prison knowing that I am innocent and the government is aware that they cannot win the trial if I obtain attorneys or even have the ability to defend myself from here.

With no counsel, no resources, no computer, no discovery, no files and no way to ever have any chance to have a fair trial and win, which again I represent will prove that this has been their plan from the start.

What if I am able to provide to you all of the proof of government misconduct? what if I am right? What if I am innocent?

You may now see what the prosecution has done to me, my family, my life, my fortune all through malicious, vindictive and selective prosecution.

I have now spent half the time since being (wrongfully) indicted in prison, being tortured, denied medical care and many civil and constitutional rights, and have lost over $42M so far.

And in the 4 weeks since I sent you my previous letter, I have lost 25% of the trial prep time.

I ask you, your Honor, what if you only believe a quarter of what I am saying to be true? I imagine that you would be compelled to have judicial, moral, or ethical obligation to allow me to confirm that this entire case has been brought through intentional and malicious misconduct and should provide me immediate bail to start preparing for a trial in 3 months.

While I understand that the United States current administration is shifting towards a socialist economy where successful businessmen are targeted, there is still a Constitution and rights that we are still entitled to as American citizens.

While I am quite certain that Mr. Ignall’s role model is Elizabeth Warren, these intentionally damaging and coordinated tactics that the prosecution has used to lose and redistribute my wealth are still illegal in the United States, even with their “qualified immunity”.

I will also provide in excess of 25 distinct acts of deliberate prosecutorial misconduct, even before seeing any of the 4 million pages of discovery.

You are probably realizing that I am angry and have been broken, destroyed, lost almost everything while I have been sitting in jail for over 4.5 months, all before any trial or test of my innocence. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Again, what if I am innocent? What if I can prove that the government coordinated to vindictively prosecute me through vindictive and malicious conduct?

What if I am innocent? What do I  do?

You see my hopeless position and why I am begging for your help to save what’s left of my life and serve justice.

I will admit to the Court that despite the government’s malicious prosecution and abundant prosecutorial misconduct, the USAO, SEC, and FBI were truthful and accurate about one fact in this case.

There certainly was “an unlawful combination or agreement between two or more persons to carry into effect purpose hurtful to some individual, or class, or the public at large”.

I hope that you eventually believe that the degree and the volume of misconduct should warrant my dismissal with prejudice from the criminal case.

Please let me prove my credibility to you by giving me 10 minutes to confirm my accusations and if you are not convinced by showing you this first example, you can ignore everything in this letter and proceed accordingly.

In closing, I hope that you are starting to understand that while I may not be a typical defendant, this case against me is also not typical and I appreciate your guidance from in here and into the trial on October 17th, 2022.

Thank you again for your time and consideration.

In the SEC’s stayed case against him, the regulator filed a brief two-page reply later the same day;

Defendant Joseph Cammarata (“Cammarata”) has only himself to blame for his current circumstances.

Over seven years ago, Cammarata foreshadowed his current predicament emailing defendant David Punturieri about Punturieri’s failure to follow up with a distribution fund administrator who had probed Defendants’ false explanation regarding fabricated trading records, writing: “. . . I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about JAIL, because we waited a week to hear anything from the admin.”

As Cammarata predicted, Defendants’ complex scheme ultimately unraveled, and Cammarata is now in jail.

In addition to engaging in the underlying conduct that gave rise to this case and the parallel Criminal Action, Cammarata is currently in jail because of his conduct after he was arrested.

Until March 2022, Cammarata was out on bail. However, as a result of Cammarata’s conduct, after a hearing, the Court revoked Cammarata’s bail and remanded him to custody.

Cammarata appealed, and the Third Circuit did not disturb the Court’s detention decision.

Cammarata’s letter to the Court is consistent with his behavior during the fraud and after he was arrested—Cammarata declines to take responsibility for his actions and seeks to blame others for a situation of his own making.

The SEC does not object to Cammarata proceeding in this case pro se. Because it is a civil matter, there is no constitutional right to appointed counsel to represent him.

We note that throughout this case, Cammarata has been represented by experienced counsel.

Because Cammarata has been a represented party, the SEC has communicated with Cammarata’s counsel throughout this case.

Because the SEC is not a party to the Criminal Action, we will not address Cammarata’s statements regarding the Criminal Action, except to reiterate the SEC’s position, which has been constant throughout this case: the SEC does not object to the unfreezing of assets untainted by the alleged fraud to be used for reasonable attorneys’ fees, as determined by the Court, in the parallel Criminal Action pursuant to the Sixth Amendment.

Although Cammarata’s letter states that the asset freeze impacted $71 million of assets, of which Cammarata claims $35 million was untainted, Cammarata’s various counsel throughout this case have not asserted such claims, identified such assets, or filed any motions seeking to unfreeze such assets.

In light of tomorrow’s hearing, Cammarata’s Letter Motion to Proceed Pro Se seems premature.

As it has throughout this case, the SEC remains willing to work with Cammarata’s counsel regarding identifying untainted assets that are potentially available to pay reasonable attorneys’ fees, as determined by the Court, in the Criminal Action pursuant to the Sixth Amended and Luis.

On July 6th a hearing in the SEC’s civil case was held. For some reason the recorded Minute Entry for proceedings is restricted. I’ll check the docket again later today for an update.

Cammarata’s brother filed the same meltdown letter in Joseph’s criminal case.

This saw the Courtroom Deputy forward the letter to Cammarata’s attorney;

It may be of assistance to you in evaluating his claims and presenting his issues to the Court.

Please also advise your client not to send private communications directly to the court.

Judge Kenney then instructed the Court Clerk to separate Cammarata’s letter into three motions;

  1. Cammarata’s request to proceed pro se (representing himself);
  2. Cammarata’s request for a bail hearing; and
  3. Cammarata’s request for an “in camera meeting” between himself and the Judge.

Hearings on the motions were originally scheduled for July 6th. By the end of the day they’d been pushed back to July 13th.

There is so much here to unpack. But this is one of those instances where I couldn’t possible top reality, so I’ll refrain pending the outcome of the issues Cammarata has raised.

Regardless of who comes out on top of this, between Cammarata, the SEC and the DOJ, someone is about to get an epic smackdown.

I’m not even fussed if it’s the SEC and DOJ at this point. I’m just glad we’ve all got front-row tickets.

Stay tuned…

 

Update 8th July 2022 – The DOJ has responded to Cammarata’s claims.

 

Update 8th November 2022 – Joseph Cammarata was found guilty on eight superseding indictment count on October 27th.