The two brothers, worth $25 million, launched a novel legal defense in federal court this week, launched a novel legal defense in federal court this week. Their case must be dismissed immediately.
Last spring, DOJ defendant Anton and James Pepaire-Bueno are two MIT-educated coding Whizzes, leveraging the process by which Ethereum Network validates transactions to steal millions of dollars worth of ETH from Transsers. The brothers were initially charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. They were later charged further with conspiracy to receive the stolen property.
This week, my brother’s lawyer filed it motion Manhattan Federal Court argues that the entire case must be dismissed. This is because of the DOJ memo distributed last week that it detailed how the department should do. Reevaluation The code is caseloaded under the Trump administration.
Among other things, the memo shuttered the DOJ’s crypto-enforcement team and outlined how to halt the pursuit of criminal cases in several areas related to digital assets.
Attorneys for Pepaire-Bueno Brothers paid particular attention to the passage in the memo declaring the DOJ “not a digital asset regulator” and “will no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of overlapping regulatory frameworks on digital assets.”
The lawyers now argue that DOJ refrains from considering securities status on various crypto assets, which argues that prosecutors can no longer claim the Pepea Boono brothers who committed some of the crimes they accused of carrying.
For example, the shock of receiving stolen property, one of the accusations the brothers are currently facing, is now controversial, says the lawyer. why? If the DOJ cannot determine whether a cryptocurrency is a security, then such assets cannot meet the legal definition of the property, whether stolen or not. Anyway, that’s the argument.
The DOJ declined to comment on the story when it investigated the potential merits of the discussion.
US District Judge Jessica GL Clark, who oversees the case, will weigh whether to grant all or part of the defendant’s motion for rejection.
Since DOJ publicly reviewed its digital asset policy, there has been a lot of speculation about what development means for aggressive criminal cases involving industry leaders. Of particular note is the ongoing US litigation. Roman Stormfounder of Crypto privacy service Tornado Cash.
In 2023, US law enforcement arrested Storm and accused him of supporting North Korea by washing up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital assets.
However, last week’s DOJ Crypto memo ordered the prosecutors They simply pursue “enemy groups” that use crypto and “do not pursue actions against the platforms these companies use to carry out illegal activities.”
As of Wednesday, a DOJ spokesperson said. DecryptionThe Storm case is still scheduled to go to court this summer.
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