The prosecution has presented its case in the federal money-laundering trial of Hip-Hop label, Murder Inc., now known as The Inc., and record execs Irv and Chris (Gotti) Lorenzo. On Tuesday (11/29) the defense team went to work with closing arguments scheduled tentatively for Wednesday (11/30). The government rested after only five days but not before entering evidence that included text-message exchanges between the Gotti brothers and convicted drug dealer Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff.

Before Judge Edward Korman allowed the evidence, both sides argued over the two-way transmissions with defense attorney Gerald Shargel noting that most of the messages were from abbreviated text-message records provided by the Gottis' pager service which maintains transcripts of all text messages up to 80 characters only, meaning that several of the messages weren't complete transmissions, reported MTV.com. Shargel attempted to fill in the gaps left by the prosecution's text-messaging review by providing context to the messages that both preceded and followed the ones that already had been read in court for the jurors.

MTV.com also noted the messages were further proof that the Gottis and Supreme had a close relationship. They even tallied up some of Supreme's travel expenses from 2002, and then connected more than $54,000 in trips the dealer had taken to Miami, Houston and Beverly Hills, California to Chris Gotti's credit card.

The prosecution also noted several cash deposits that were made to the Gottis' personal and business checking accounts during the course of seven months in 2000, totaling $82,000 -- $27,000 to Irv's, $33,000 to Chris' and $22,000 to the checking account for Chris' Murda Management.

The Gottis are accused laundering more than $1 million in Supreme's drug profits through an elaborate check-for-cash scheme that involved various Inc. related music and film ventures.