This morning, a letter presented by the defense of the developers of the Samourai wallet, Keonne RodrÃguez and William Lonergan Hill revealed that The Southern District of New York (SDNY) had suppressed the exculpatory evidence in the criminal case.
According to the presentation, the Prosecutor’s Office had consulted Finnn before the accusation of developers about the viability of submitting money transmission charges against a non -custodial service.
“A mixer like Samourai that does not take the custody of the cryptocurrency by possessing private keys would strongly suggest that Samourai is not acting as MSB,” Finnn told prosecutors, according to the presentation.
In internal communications, prosecutors declared that they can present positions based on the “functional control” of the code, probably referring to the control of Samourai on the user interface and the coinjoin server of Samourai Wallet. The Prosecutor’s Office declared that such an argument “has never been addressed in the guide”, recognizing that “it could be a difficult argument to do.”
Communications between Finnn and Sdny were revealed after a so -called Brady application, ordering the government to deliver any evidence that may exonerate the developers of the charges.
The Government is required to deliver exculpatory evidence to the defense two weeks after submitting its accusation no later than. The late revelation of such highly relevant materials may now have cheated the Court, alleges the letter, which affects both the bail requirements established in the developers and the judge’s inclination to deny the presentation of a motion to dismiss.
The defense is now looking for an audience to determine possible remedies for SDNY’s behavior, including the dismissal of charges.
“It is difficult to imagine a clearer example of ‘prosecution regulation’ than what we have here,” says the defense, referring to the Recent Blache Memo. “The relevant regulator that tells prosecutors that Samourai’s wallet was not a money transmitter, under the same public guide in which Mr. RodrÃguez and Mr. Hill trusted to guide their conduct, and the prosecutors who continue and accused them to operate a money service business without license anyway.”
FINCEN position on non -custodial service providers shared with SDNY echoes its 2019 orientationwhich stated that “a cryptocurrency wallet provider will be classified as a money transmitter if” the host has a total independent control over the value (although it is contractually obliged to access the value only to the owner’s instructions). “
Defense groups and legal academics have equal A long time ago argued That the Prosecutor’s Office of Samourai wallet developers, as well as the prosecution of cash tornado developers, the Roman storm and the Roman Site, constitute a clear violation of the Finnn guide.
While Samourai’s application was successful, a similar request Made by the Cash Tornado Roman Storm developer trying to force the Government to reveal “any material received from Ofac and Finnn no longer produced, including substantive communications with those agencies” was denied last year, since the government argued that FINCEN is not part of the Prosecutor’s Office in the case.
As a storm Point out in xHe was arrested the same day that the prosecutors of the Samourai wallet consulted Finn on the viability of the money transmission charges without a license, which makes SDNY also be aware of the stretch of his positions for the entire torn prosecution.
“Finnn explicitly informed SDNY prosecutors that Samourai Wallet’s non -custodial design did not require money transmitter licenses, however, the Department of Justice accused the developers independently,” Bitcoin magazine Bitcoin Institute of Bitcoin Policy Institute, to Bitcoin magazine, told Bitcoin magazine. “This prosecution exemplifies the regulation by criminal accusation, directly challenging the directive of Deputy Ag Blanche and undermine the cryptographic policies of the Trump administration.”
“Brady Violation,” writes the expert in the money laundering JW Verret in X. “The case must be launched alone, much less the new memorandum of the Department of Justice that effectively orders SDNY to leave the case.”
“The fact that prosecutors tried to retain this defense information is a serious ethical violation and can end up launching the case,” Bitcoin tells Bitcoin. “That is whether the Department of Justice does not release everything, since the main justice has effectively ordered that cases like this are eliminated.”
“As we have said,” writes Peter Van Valkenburgh coincienter in X, “the non -license transmission prosecutions of the DOJ are directly against the rule of law. Today we obtained an additional confirmation that the prosecution understood that it contradicts the long -standing regulatory orientation, but brought charges anyway.”
“It follows that if they were not money transmitters under the guide of Finn,” says the defense in his letter, “then they could not be prosecuted for not having a license and not implementing money laundering controls,” referring that the case against Samourai wallet developers should be completely expelled.
This is an guest publication of L0la L33tz. The opinions expressed are completely yours and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC INC or Bitcoin magazine.
