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Ryan Seacrest Films First ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Episodes After Pat Sajak’s Retirement, Posts Video From Set: ‘I’m Still Spinning With Excitement’

By Selome Hailu

Selome Hailu

• FX’s ‘Alien’ Series Gets Official Title ‘Alien: Earth’ 5 hours ago
• Ryan Seacrest Films First ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Episodes After Pat Sajak’s Retirement, Posts Video From Set: ‘I’m Still Spinning With Excitement’ 1 day ago
• Netflix Top 10: ‘Supacell’ Holds First Place While ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Rises to No. 6 on Most Popular List 1 day ago

Ryan Seacrest has shared a behind-the-scenes look at his first day hosting “ Wheel of Fortune ” after Pat Sajak ‘s retirement.

“I’m still spinning with excitement!” he wrote under an Instagram video that showed him entering the set for the first time. “I’m so excited, my heart’s pounding,” he says in the video.

“The wheel’s maybe smaller than you think — as am I,” he jokes, before spinning the wheel for the first time. “I could not sleep last night, I was so excited,” he continues. “I slept okay, but still very excited for the alarm to go off.”

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“You’re never going to find a better job, and you’re never going to find a better co-host,” Sajak continued, speaking about White.

Seacrest was announced as Sajak’s replacement in June 2023. Sajak’s final episode of “Wheel of Fortune” aired on June 7, reaching 11 million viewers , though he will host “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” for one last season premiering on ABC this fall . In September 2023, White extended her contract with the show through the 2025-2025 season.

See Seacrest’s Instagram post below.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ryan Seacrest (@ryanseacrest)

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Chinese Billionaire and Bannon Ally Is Convicted of Fraud

A federal jury found that Guo Wengui defrauded investors, many his own fervent supporters, of hundreds of millions of dollars. He could face decades in prison.

By Michael Forsythe

Michael Forsythe has reported about Guo Wengui since 2017.

Guo Wengui, the exiled Chinese billionaire who transformed himself from a Beijing insider into a fierce critic of the Chinese Communist Party and a favorite of the American right, was convicted on Tuesday of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Guo, also known as Miles Guo, was accused of using a number of schemes — club memberships, cryptocurrencies, a sale of private shares in his media company — to fleece his followers and maintain a lavish lifestyle. On the fourth day of deliberations, a jury in the Southern District of New York found him guilty on nine of 12 charges, including racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Set to be sentenced on Nov. 19, Mr. Guo could face decades in prison or the remote possibility of extradition to China.

In a trial lasting almost two months, government prosecutors highlighted rambling videos Mr. Guo had made for his thousands of supporters, often guaranteeing no losses on their investments. The proceeds helped pay for a mansion in New Jersey, a Lamborghini roadster and a $100 million investment in a hedge fund. Prosecutors also drew on bank records, invoices and the testimony of Mr. Guo’s former employees and jilted investors, who had been drawn to a wealthy Beijing expatriate dedicated to ending the seven-decade rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Is Miles Guo a real political activist or not? I don’t know, I don’t care, and neither should you,” Juliana Murray, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the jury on Thursday. “He’s an opportunist. He’s a fraudster.”

The conviction is the end point of a remarkable trajectory for Mr. Guo, who made his original fortune in China building hotels and acquiring a brokerage company. Along the way, he allied himself with Ma Jian, a senior intelligence official in the country’s feared Ministry of State Security. Mr. Guo used his access to sensitive information to take down people who stood in his way, including a deputy mayor of Beijing who opposed his plans to build a massive office and hotel complex next to the site of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Mr. Guo’s time in China came to an abrupt end in 2015, after Mr. Ma was detained by the government. Mr. Guo fled to America and bought a $68 million Manhattan penthouse overlooking Central Park, winning the approval of the building’s co-op board with the help of a recommendation letter from the former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Mr. Guo may be unique in that he thrived — until he didn’t — in two very different political systems. When he came to the United States, he cultivated political relationships to burnish his image, but this time it was with members of the American right, especially Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump. By early 2017, shortly after Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Guo was a member of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Fla.

That year, Mr. Guo applied for political asylum and publicly accused senior Chinese leaders of corruption. China sought to extradite him, enlisting the support of a senior Republican official in a failed attempt to lobby the Trump administration. Beijing also leveled its own charges against him, including bribery and rape, aided by testimony from his former patron Mr. Ma.

Mr. Guo, whose age has been described as anywhere from 54 to 57, did not take the stand in his trial. His lawyers argued that his businesses were legitimate and were designed to further his anti-Communist crusade. His efforts included running a Chinese-language streaming site and a Twitter-like social media platform , both popular with exiles. The three counts on which Mr. Guo was found not guilty were related to his media company GTV: wire and securities fraud, and “unlawful monetary transactions.”

Mr. Guo was the leader of a “political enterprise of people banded together to bring down one of the world’s most powerful governments, and so that’s what they set out to do,” Sidhardha Kamaraju, one of Mr. Guo’s lawyers, said in closing remarks last week. “They started setting up the infrastructure to help carry that movement forward.”

But prosecutors countered the portrayal of Mr. Guo as a principled anti-Communist leader with recordings, made by a former employee, of a heated conversation in 2021 about how to execute some planned money transfers. Mr. Guo could be heard screaming at his employees in Mandarin, yelling “scumbag” and “go to hell” and a string of other epithets. Prosecutors played the tape to jurors on Wednesday and again on Thursday to drive home the point.

“That’s the boss of a criminal enterprise,” Ms. Murray said.

Mr. Guo’s defense was also undermined by the behavior of his followers, so-called fellow fighters who were deployed far and wide to attack his perceived enemies, including a prominent Chinese dissident.

They demonstrated outside the Cambridge, Mass., home of a government witness, the son-in-law of a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for Mr. Guo, handing out inflammatory pamphlets with a Communist hammer-and-sickle. They also went to the school where the witness’s wife was a third-grade teacher. She was “really panicked, really upset, just really, you know, crying and unsettled and just kind of overcome with fear,” Daniel Copeland, the witness, told the court.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors worked to associate Mr. Guo with Mr. Bannon, named a co-conspirator by the government but not indicted. Mr. Bannon had a $1 million consulting contract with one of Mr. Guo’s companies and had a hand in creating three organizations that were central to the government’s case. On multiple occasions, his picture was shown on screens placed in front of the jurors.

Mr. Bannon, who recently began serving a prison term for contempt of Congress, declined to speak on the record about the trial.

In June 2020, he appeared alongside Mr. Guo on a boat in New York Harbor to announce the formation of the New Federal State of China, which aimed to supplant the Communist government.

That August, Mr. Bannon was arrested on Mr. Guo’s yacht on unrelated federal charges of defrauding donors to a private fund-raising effort called We Build the Wall. He was pardoned by Mr. Trump in the final hours of his presidency but still faces similar state charges in New York.

As Chinese officials began to seize Mr. Guo’s properties and bank accounts in China and Hong Kong, Mr. Guo turned to those supporters to fund his opulent lifestyle, according to witnesses at the trial.

Mr. Guo was arrested at his New York penthouse in March 2023. Even after the dozen charges against him, he retained fervent followers around the world, dozens of whom showed up to watch the trial and await the verdict. Last week, his two most prominent Chinese supporters, the former soccer star Hao Haidong and his wife, Ye Zhaoying, once the world’s top-ranked women’s badminton player, were in the gallery among dozens of others. The New Federal State of China website posted daily trial transcripts in English and Chinese.

Mr. Guo, dressed in a dark double-breasted suit, sat expressionless as he listened over headphones to a translation of the judge reading the verdict. After the jury of eight men and four women was dismissed, he shook Mr. Kamaraju’s hand and hugged another of his lawyers.

The jury began deliberating on Thursday afternoon, but hit a snag on Friday when a juror was dismissed after conducting an internet search for information about one of Mr. Guo’s indicted co-conspirators, who is now a fugitive. The jury had to pause deliberations while an alternate was called in.

Three floors below their deliberations at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, another jury was deciding the fate of Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat accused of bribery, obstruction of justice and other crimes. On Tuesday he was found guilty on all counts.

In a statement after the Guo verdict, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District, Damian Williams, said: “Thousands of Guo’s online followers were victimized so that Guo could live of a life of excess. Today, Guo’s schemes have been put to an end.”

Michael Forsythe a reporter on the investigations team at The Times, based in New York. He has written extensively about, and from, China. More about Michael Forsythe

Around the New York Region

A look at life, culture, politics and more in new york, new jersey and connecticut..

A Pioneering Rabbi’s Goodbye: Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, whose Manhattan synagogue is the largest L.G.B.T.Q. congregation in the country, is retiring at a challenging time for the gay rights movement .

The Path to the U.S.: A family of five, plus a dog, trekked 5,000 miles through eight countries hoping to reach New York City. See the journey they documented .

What It Costs: For many Black women, summertime calls for braids, even if getting them can take hours sitting in a chair. At one Brooklyn salon, these boho knotless braids cost $450 .

Street Wars: A street in Jackson Heights, Queens, was clogged with traffic. Now, it belongs to pedestrians, cyclists and playing children .

Sunday Routine: George Gaffney, the top concierge at the Beekman hotel, spends his Sundays  going restaurant hopping for breakfast with his family, then helping tourists find the best brunch spots.

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In particolare esprimo in modo digitale il mio consenso a trattare i miei dati con un processo automatizzato inteso unicamente a correlare i miei interessi, in fatto di barche, con le opportunità del mercato in modo che la Società possa presentarmi delle proposte mirate

Senza tale consenso Star Fortune srl non avrà modo di essere adeguatamente propositiva nei vostri confronti.

Festival, ahoy! A dozen things to know about St. Paul's Minnesota Yacht Club

I t's the biggest music festival launched in the Twin Cities in 12 years. It's expecting more than 30,000 musicheads per day. And it's being produced by the same company that puts on Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits fests.

There's a lot to learn about the Minnesota Yacht Club — especially for deprived Twin Cities music lovers who haven't been to a big, nationally promoted festival like this since Live Nation's ill-fated River's Edge Music Festival on the same site in 2012.

With its inaugural voyage scheduled Friday and Saturday at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul, the river-themed event features a Gen-X-nostalgic all-rock lineup led by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alanis Morissette, Gwen Stefani, Black Crowes, the Offspring, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Hold Steady and a dozen more acts. New Orleans' soul-funk troupe Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are the only non-rock act on the bill, and they actually rock harder than most of them.

Here are some pointers, talking points and pointed opinions going into this weekend's mega-bash.

1. Saturday's single-day tickets are sold out. Even though they just played in town last year , the Chili Peppers' day as headliners quickly proved more popular than Morissette's. However, two-day general admission festival passes (now $255) and one-day Friday tickets ($135) were still available at press time via minnesotayachtclub.com .

A profits-generating trademark of promoter C3 Presents and other big festivals, there's also a wide array of VIP, platinum and "GA+" options, ranging from $285-$925 for single-day and $255-$1,395 for two-day. Those priciest options come with things like front-of-stage viewing access, express entry, lounges, free booze and back rubs from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. Or maybe we read that latter item wrong?

2. No, it's not a "yacht rock" festival. There actually has been a lot of confusion about this. The event's name is simply a fun spin on its riverside location and the relative irony of someone having a yacht in Minnesota. It has nothing to do with the genre of music associated with breezy and cheesy '70s-'80s hitmakers like Toto, Seals & Crofts and Christopher Cross. How fun would it have been to see one of those acts sandwiched between the Hold Steady and Offspring, though?

3. Boats actually are part of the experience. "Riverboat VIP" ticket holders ($825) can lounge in air-conditioning on the Jonathan Padelford and even take a 60-minute cruise on the paddleboat during the fest. Why anyone would want to go to a music fest to set sail for South St. Paul, we're not sure, but it's a unique idea for a festival.

4. The company behind it is in the festival business. C3 got its start with the hugely successful Austin City Limits Music Festival in the early 2000s before turning Lollapalooza into a one-weekend Chicago event. Live Nation bought a 51% stake in the company in 2014 but mostly leaves C3 to do its own thing when it comes to festivals. Other fests in its portfolio include Boston Calling, Atlanta's Shaky Knees and New York's Governors Ball — all steeped in unique branding and preparations for each city.

"We've been talking to the city well over a year now and working with them on the logistical plans," C3 promoter Tim Sweetwood said of MYC.

5. There will be only two stages (and no overlapping performances). While many festivals require fans to make tough decisions and Iditarod-like treks between competing stages — OK, maybe that's being a little dramatic — the setup at MYC in its first year features just two stages with alternating music that never runs concurrently. Dubbed the Skipper Stage and Crow's Nest Stage, they are only about a quarter-mile apart, too.

6. Gwen Stefani's appearance is the rarest among the top names. Last seen in town making a surprise appearance with husband Blake Shelton at the TC Summer Jam in 2022 , the former No Doubt singer and ex-coach on NBC's "The Voice" has not been performing a lot of late; just a handful of fly-in gigs this summer.

In the solo gigs she has done in 2024, Stefani has been revisiting many songs from No Doubt (with whom she reunited at Coachella fest in April ), including "Don't Speak," "Just a Girl" and "Hella Good."

7. The lineup isn't entirely a nostalgia trip. All these aforementioned acts make it look exclusively like a '90s and early '00s throwback fest, but there are actually modern stars and buzzmakers on the lineup.

Texas slinger Gary Clark Jr. has been the most thrilling blues-rock guitarist on tour over the past decade . Harmonious Seattle rockers the Head and the Heart have racked up a swath of radio hits and TV/film placement with songs like "Lost in My Mind." Twangy singer Morgan Wade has made a couple of well-reviewed records with Jason Isbell's guitarist Sadler Vaden as her producer. Indie-rocker Michigander is a critical favorite.

The Twin Cities' own pop-rock darlings Hippo Campus have become a big draw , too, recently playing New York's Governors Ball festival and selling out the Armory in Minneapolis.

8. There's good local representation. In addition to Hippo Campus, we'll see hard-charging local faves Gully Boys help kick off the fest Friday ahead of viral sensations Durry . On Saturday, fuzz-rocky kids Bugsy play before a fun afternoon twofer with Soul Asylum and the semi-local Hold Steady. As rock-only lineups go — musical diversity is not Yacht Club's strong suit — these are some of the state's most relevant acts present or past playing live in 2024.

9. The list of items you're allowed to bring in is short. Leave the chairs, coolers and umbrellas at home. Only small fanny packs, clutch purses, emptied hydration packs or small clear bags are allowed in. Other permissible items include: phones, baby strollers, blankets/towels, binoculars, reusable water bottles, non-aerosol sunscreen (3.4 ounce max) and Frisbees. For our sake, though, please don't bring any Frisbees.

10. There's a longer list of alternative transportation options. Coming from Austin, Texas, a city with notorious traffic problems, C3 makes a point of encouraging biking, ride-sharing and public transit options at all its festivals.

There's a designated rideshare dropoff site (Uber, Lyft, taxi) near the Wabasha Street entrance at 49 E. Fillmore Av. Bike lots are located at both that entrance and the second set of gates along W. Water Street (bring your own lock). For light rail, the Green Line's Central Station is a half-mile walk away. Ample public bus route stops also can be mapped out via metrotransit.org .

11. Harriet Island isn't really an island, and it isn't all that hard to get to. You wouldn't know it from the maps on the festival's website — or if you're one of those uppity Minneapolitans who never visit the other Twin City — but you can approach the park from the southwest side of the river as well as the downtown side. There are assorted parking options over there, too.

That said, the 15- to 20-minute walk across the Wabasha Street Bridge from downtown parking sites can be quite lovely if it's not sweltering heat. You can handle it, Minneapolis peeps.

12. This is just a start. "It's sort of a slow burn to start," C3′s Sweetwood said, promising expansion in the years to come. "We'll try to give it a little more color and better branding, the kind of things we have a good feel for at C3, being primarily a festival producer."

Friday lineup (in order, 12:45-10:30 p.m.): Harbor and Home, Gully Boys, Michigander, Morgan Wade, Durry, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Head and the Heart, Gwen Stefani, Black Crowes, Alanis Morissette.

Saturday (1-10:30 p.m.): Nico Vega, Bugsy, Wilderado, Soul Asylum, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Hippo Campus, the Hold Steady, the Offspring, Gary Clark Jr., Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Tickets: $135-$925 Fri. only, $255-$1,395 two-day.

Website: minnesotayachtclubfestival.com .

©2024 StarTribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

What is JD Vance's net worth? A look at Donald Trump's VP pick's fortune

Republican Donald Trump's pick for vice president J.D. Vance is an investor, venture capitalist, best-selling author and U.S. Senator from Ohio.

So how much is Vance worth? Here's a look at his fortune.

Business: JD Vance, Steve Case want the heartland's start-up pitches

J.D. Vance worth estimated at $5 million

Vance, 39, of Middletown, has a net worth of $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth .

Citing Vance's 2022 Congressional financial disclosure, Celebrity Net Worth reports that the majority of his 100-plus investments are worth between $1,000 and $15,000. Some of Vance's major investments include:

• Huntington National Bank which holds $250,000 – $500,000
• Robin Hood checking account which holds $100,000 – $250,000
• Five Goldman Sachs CDs valued at a combined range of $500,000 and $1.05 million
• $500,000 – $1 million worth of shares in the QQQ Exchange Traded Fund
• $100,000 – $200,000 worth of 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF shares
• $100,000 – $250,000 worth of Bitcoin held through Coinbase
• $50,000 – $100,000 worth of Walmart stock

How much does Vance make as a senator?

Vance earns an annual salary of $174,000 as a U.S. senator, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation .

How much would Vance earn as Vice President of the United States?

If he ascends to be the country's second in command, Vance would make $235,100 each year he serves as vice president, according to the NTUF.

'Hillbilly Elegy' earns Vance nearly $500,000

According to Business Insider , Vance reported earnings of $475,308 in 2021 off royalties from his 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy."

VP pick has Columbus ties: Who is JD Vance? Vice presidential candidate has multiple ties to Columbus

That royalty payday in the year he announced his political candidacy was an increase from the previous year. In 2020, his book earned him $347,752, not including a deal with Netflix.

Colleges pay Vance $70,000 to speak after 'Hillbilly Elegy' published

In the two years after the publication of "Hillbilly Elegy," Vance visited 18 colleges and universities to give commencement addresses, lectures or political talks, the Associated Press reports . He was paid more than $70,000 for those visits, according to records provided to the AP.

At the time, Vance, an Ohio State University and Yale Law School graduate, spoke highly of education, the AP reports. But once he announced his political campaign, he targeted universities as enemies of the conservative movement.

Vance wins U.S. Senate seat in 2022

In Nov. 2022, Trump-endorsed Vance defeated Democrat Tim Ryan in the election for the U.S. Senate, keeping one of Ohio's seats in Republican hands.

The race to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman became one of the most watched in the nation, and Republicans fought harder than planned to keep a seat  critical to a GOP Senate majority .

Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan raised millions of dollars and took advantage of a bruising GOP primary to keep the race close until the very end, as the Cincinnati Enquirer previously reported .

Chinese magnate with a red Lamborghini and superyacht convicted for bilking $1 billion from investors

Exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, whose crusade against the Communist Party attracted allies including Donald Trump associate Steve Bannon, was convicted for duping investors out of $1 billion to fund his luxury lifestyle.

After a trial in Manhattan that lasted almost two months, Guo was found guilty on Tuesday of fraud and racketeering conspiracy. Convicted on nine of the 12 counts against him, he faces as many as 20 years in prison on the most serious charges when he is sentenced on Nov. 19. 

Guo “brazenly operated several interrelated fraud schemes, all designed to fleece his loyal followers out of their hard-earned money so that Guo could spend his days in his 50,000-square-foot mansion, driving his $1 million Lamborghini, or lounging on his $37 million yacht,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict.

A lawyer for Guo declined to comment, but Guo is almost certain to appeal the verdict.

Guo smiled at his lawyers as the jury walked out, hugged attorney Sabrina Shroff and shook the hands of other members of the defense team. The outspoken businessman, also known as Ho Wan Kwok or Miles Guo, was tried before jurors whose names were kept secret — an unusual move designed to shield them in a case that has drawn intense interest. 

Appealing to a huge online following, Guo raised money from investors for seemingly legitimate businesses but diverted the funds to spend on himself and his family. The trial involved weeks of testimony from investors drawn to Guo through his public critique of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as from luxury car dealers who sold him rare vehicles and a managing director at Kyle Bass’ hedge fund Hayman Capital Management, which ran a hedge fund that the government said Guo invested $100 million of the stolen funds in. 

Neither Bass, Hayman nor Bannon was accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Videos From His Superyacht

Guo amassed his social media following through videos recorded from his penthouse at the Sherry-Netherland hotel overlooking New York’s Central Park or from the deck of his 152-foot superyacht. Guo claimed his fortune came from his wealthy real estate developer family in China. But a portion of his wealth, federal prosecutors said, also came from stealing $1 billion through bogus investment opportunities he hawked online. 

The jury began its deliberations Thursday but was forced to start over with an alternate juror after a member of the panel admitted to Googling the name of a co-defendant, who is still at large. 

The defense urged the jurors not to let Guo’s expensive tastes cloud their judgment, claiming he flaunted his wealth as a form of protest against the Communist Party. 

The prosecution had its own framing. “Is Miles Guo a real political activist?” Assistant US Attorney Juliana Murray said Thursday during closing arguments. “I don’t know and I don’t care, because that’s not what this trial is about.”

Mysterious Background

The case explored Guo’s mysterious background, including fleeing persecution in China, his ties to Bannon and how he came to pour millions into Hayman Capital’s high-risk wager against the Hong Kong dollar. 

Bannon was on Guo’s yacht off the coast of Connecticut in 2020 when the political adviser was arrested on charges he conspired to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from a campaign to finance a wall on the US southern border. Trump pardoned Bannon just before leaving office.

In 2020, Guo transfered $100 million raised through an illicit stock offering in his GTV Media Group to the Hayman Hong Kong Opportunities Fund, which held a position that the country’s currency peg to the US dollar would collapse, according to prosecutors. Bannon introduced Guo and Bass, a longtime China skeptic. Bannon himself was paid $1 million as a consultant to GTV’s parent company Saraca Media Group, evidence presented at the trial showed. 

After Hayman received the investment, Bannon emailed Bass. 

‘Congrats on Miles Deal’

“Congrats on miles deal,” Bannon wrote, according to an email presented as evidence. “He thinks u r biggest superstar in finance.” 

A month later, the US Securities and Exchange Commission contacted Hayman to inquire about the source of the funds. When Bass asked Guo’s financial adviser for an explanation, he got no reply, evidence showed. By that point, close to $30 million had been lost in the unsuccessful currency wager. 

The remaining $70 million was eventually handed over to authorities.

Guo was acquitted on Tuesday of fraud related to the stock offering in GTV and of unlawful monetary transaction in connection with the $100 million transfer to the Hayman hedge fund.

$539 Million SEC Settlement

In 2021, three Guo-linked companies, including GTV, agreed to pay  $539 million  to settle the SEC’s investigation into unregistered stock offerings. 

According to prosecutors, other Guo scams involved an exclusive private members-only club with a minimum $10,000 buy-in, a crypto platform called the Himalaya Exchange and a farm loan program. 

The government alleged Guo also peeled off investor funds to spend on luxuries including a red Lamborghini, a $4 million Ferrari for his son and a $26 million New Jersey mansion.

The case is US v. Guo, 23-cr-00118, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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