Immediately, Samourai Pockets builders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill appeared collectively in court docket within the Southern District of New York for a standing convention.
This was the primary time the 2 made a public look collectively for the reason that US Division of Justice (DoJ) charged the two developers with conspiracy to commit cash laundering and conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise in April 2024. It was additionally the primary time both of them have appeared in court docket since Hill appeared ahead of his bail release in July and Rodriguez first attended a court hearing in May.
The prosecution addressed the court docket first, stating that it had produced “voluminous batches of discovery.”
It made the primary batch out there to the protection in mid-June 2024. This batch featured enterprise data, emails and social media account info amongst different knowledge.
The second batch, which it made out there to the protection in mid-August 2024, featured knowledge extractions from the gadgets that the DoJ seized from the 2 builders. The DoJ has extracted info from 15 of the 44 gadgets seized from Rodriguez and 25 of the 27 gadgets seized from Hill.
The prosecution additionally acknowledged that it might produce a 3rd batch of discovery containing a “comparatively modest” quantity of information quickly and that it was ready to proceed with trial.
No Proof Of Cash Transmission
Rodriguez’s legal professional made the case that it was untimely to set a trial date, because the protection has but to evaluate all the discovery made out there in mid-August 2024. The protection additionally mentioned that it has but to return throughout any proof displaying that Rodriguez or Hill operated an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise.
Hill’s legal professional acknowledged that they’ve obtained 8 terabytes value of discovery. To place this quantity of information in context, he defined that this was the equal of 75% of the quantity of knowledge within the Library of Congress and that, if one printed this info, one may stack the paper it was printed on “to the moon and again 22 occasions,” making the purpose that it might be onerous to kind by way of and evaluate.
Hill’s legal professional additionally referenced the letter from Senators Cynthia Lummis (R) and Ron Wyden (D) by which the lawmakers acknowledged that the DoJ’s unprecedented interpretation of the US Division of the Treasury’s Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community (FinCEN) statute concerning working an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise contradicts the intent of the rule. Because of this, he proposed a movement to dismiss the cost.
The decide denied this request and scheduled a follow-up listening to for December 17, 2024 at 10 AM ET.
Rodriguez’s Request For Bail Modifications
Within the second portion of the convention, Rodriguez’s lawyer requested two modifications to Rodriguez’s bail circumstances. He requested that the court docket take away Rodriguez’s dwelling detention mandate and that the court docket modify restrictions on Rodriguez’s potential to transact with cryptocurrency, a few of which was proceeds from Samourai. (Zack Shapiro, Authorized Fellow on the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) later defined to me that the second modification was requested partially in order that Rodriguez may use bitcoin proceeds from Samourai to pay for authorized charges.)
Rodriguez’s legal professional argued that dwelling detention was “unduly restrictive” and “pointless,” and that Rodriguez isn’t a flight danger. The protection additionally cited two situations by which Rodriguez had the chance to flee however didn’t in its efforts to make the case that Rodriguez not wanted to put on a location monitoring gadget.
The prosecution pushed again, arguing that Rodriguez’s dwelling detention was obligatory to make sure that Rodriguez continued to look for trial. It additionally acknowledged that the fees being levied towards Rodriguez for working a “cryptocurrency cash laundering enterprise” had been extreme and that Rodriguez was doubtlessly going through a possible sentence of as much as 25 years.
The prosecution went on to quote proof from handwritten pages that it had obtained from Rodriguez’s dwelling containing particulars about how he would flee the nation to a jurisdiction from which it might be tough to extradite him. This info included a listing together with totally different passports in addition to having $10,000 in money, a burner cellphone, an unused SIM card, and numerous mnemonic phrases for crypto property amongst different objects.
Rodriguez’s lawyer argued that this plan utilized to what Rodriguez would do within the case of a extra normal emergency, whereas the prosecution argued that this was Rodriguez’s present escape plan.
The prosecution acknowledged that it was “a fairly good plan” and that it doesn’t really feel that it’s applicable to cease monitoring Rodriguez right now. Nevertheless, the prosecution did say that it might contemplate permitting Rodriguez sure freedoms if petitioned, with out together with any specifics.
The decide didn’t enable for the modification of the bail circumstances and requested each the prosecution and the protection to “get shifting on the case.”
Donate to the authorized protection fund for Rodriguez and Hill by way of BPI’s P2P Rights Fund.
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Frank Corva
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