A bank employee is pleading guilty to stealing from the lender’s customers and lying to conceal her guilt, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Eastern District says Truist Bank employee, Ahshah Dior Martin, stole $195,000 from at least 70 Truist Bank accounts.

Martin started gathering banking information on her would-be victims in 2023 after improperly accessing the bank’s computer systems.

“Then, she initiated fraudulent debits and withdrawals from these accounts for her own benefit. For instance, Martin repeatedly initiated payments from customer bank accounts to a child support payment processor, through which Martin paid herself.”

The victims Martha stole from while working at Truist Bank were diverse and comprised of both individuals and entities, according to the Eastern District. They included “multiple churches, a children’s museum, an eye tissue bank non-profit organization, manufacturing and construction companies, a small business making customized holsters, and the North Carolina Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.”

Truist Bank fired Martin in April of 2024 but she frustrated efforts by the eighth-largest US bank by total assets to retrieve the computer she had been issued at work.

“To conceal her wrongdoing and prevent the return of her Truist laptop, Martin faked her own death. On April 17, 2024, in response to an email from Truist asking for the computer, Martin responded, “Sorry to inform you, she has passed away.””

The former Truist Bank employee spent the money she stole on “cosmetic products, clothing, travel expenses, dining, and at a hookah bar,” the Eastern District says.

Martin faces up to three decades in prison. She will be sentenced in November.

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X’s Grok chatbot declined to select a winner for a $1,000 Ethereum giveaway organized by crypto influencer Crypto Rover, citing prior allegations of pump-and-dump activity detailed by on-chain investigator ZachXBT.

In replies to users participating in the weekend contest, Grok stated it was abstaining from choosing a winner due to “substantiated reports” implicating Rover in schemes that could compromise community safety.

The messages are now unavailable but circulated in screenshots showing Grok referencing ZachXBT’s findings and calling for caution. The interaction stemmed from a routine promotional giveaway in which Rover, who posts under @rovercrc and has over 1 million followers, invited users to like, repost, and follow his account for a chance to win the prize.

As ZachXBT reported, the allegations center on a project Rover was contracted to promote in May 2023. The deal included a $10,000 payment, a percentage of the project’s token supply.

According to the investigation, Rover made no promotional posts as agreed and later claimed he would delay content until “better market conditions,” while threatening legal action against the project’s team for attempting to call him out.

ZachXBT linked Rover’s wallet activity to subsequent token sales, generating roughly 40 ETH in profits. The funds were routed to a known Bybit deposit address previously associated with Rover.

The probe also identified 10 fresh wallets tied to the same promotional period that accumulated 9 percent of the token’s supply shortly before Rover posted about the asset. The project team behind the meme coin ceased communications shortly after, with no further updates beyond May 2023. In previous posts, Rover reportedly stated he could “pump projects from half a million to ten million easy,” a remark ZachXBT highlighted as part of a broader pattern of manipulative behavior.

Rover did not publicly address Grok’s specific decision and has continued to tag Grok for his next giveaway.

Not all of Grok’s responses refused to engage with Crypto Rover. Many replies to Crypto Rover and his followers affirmed that the bot would select a winner for the giveaway. However, per the latest posts, none was chosen by the bot.

Grok, developed by xAI, has previously drawn scrutiny for its erratic output, including unverified claims and inflammatory responses, though its creators position it as a “maximally truth-seeking” assistant.

ZachXBT’s forensic investigations have become a fixture in crypto accountability circles, with previous work cited in law enforcement actions and asset recoveries totaling over US $210 million, per a 2024 Wired profile.

Mentioned in this article

A letter submitted this morning by the defense of Samourai wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Ronergan Hill revealed that the Southern District of New York (SDNY) had suppressed clear evidence in criminal cases.

According to the filing, the prosecution had consulted Fincen about the feasibility of bringing in unauthorized money transmission fees for non-mandatory services before the developer charged them.

“Mixers like Samourai, who own private keys and do not detain cryptocurrency, strongly suggest that Samourai is not acting as an MSB,” Finsen told prosecutors.

In internal communications, the prosecutor says it could lead to fees based on “functional controls” of the code, perhaps referring to Samourai’s control over the user interface and the coin join server of the Samourai wallet. Prosecutors said such arguments were “never addressed in the guidance,” and admitted that “that could be a difficult argument.”

Communication between Fincen and SDNY was revealed following the so-called Brady request, ordering the government to hand over evidence that could exonerate the accused developer.

The government will need to hand over the evidence exempted to the defense two weeks after filing the latest indictment. The later disclosure of such highly relevant material may mislead the courts, arguing that the letters have an impact on both the bail requirements imposed on the developer and the tendency of judges to refuse to file a motion for rejection.

The defense is currently seeking a hearing to determine potential remedies for SDNY’s actions, including the dismissal of the charges.

“It’s hard to imagine a clear example of “prosecutorial regulation” than what we have here,” said the defense, referring to the recent Blache memo. “The relevant regulators telling prosecutors that Samourai’s wallets are not gold senders have indicted the same general guidance that Rodriguez and Hill relied on to guide their actions, and prosecutors have stepped forward and run a money services business that is not exempt anyway.”

Fincen’s attitude towards non-lawful service providers shared with SDNY echoes 2019 guidance. This states that “cryptocurrency wallet providers will be classified as transmitters if the host is completely independent of their value (contractually mandated to access value only from the owner.”

Advocacy groups and legal scholars have long argued that the prosecution of Samourai wallet developers and the prosecution of tornado cash developers Roman Storm and Rome Semenov are clear violations of Finsen guidance.

Samourai’s Brady Request was successful, but a similar request was rejected last year to try to disclose to the government that it contains “materials that have not yet been produced from materials received from OFAC and Fincen (substantial communications with these agencies).

As Storm points out in X, he was arrested the same day he consulted the prosecutor of Samourai Wallet about the feasibility of unauthorized money transmission fees, making it seem that SDNY is even more aware of the spread of that charge throughout Storm’s prosecution.

“Fincen explicitly informed SDNY prosecutors that no remittance license is required for Samourai Wallet’s non-mandatory design, but the DOJ has indicted the developer. “The prosecutor exemplifies regulations through criminal prosecution, directly opposes the directions of the AG Blanche Deputy Bureau, and undermines the Trump administration’s crypto policy.”

“Brady Violation,” wrote JW Verret, an anti-money laundering expert, in X.

“The fact that the prosecutor attempted to withhold this information from the defense is a serious ethical violation and could lead to a case,” Verret told Bitcoin Magazine. “That’s if the DOJ doesn’t drop it all together, given that the main justice effectively ordered such cases to be removed.”

“Like we said,” writes Peter Van Valkenburgh of Conicenter in X.

“If they are not a remittance under Fincen’s guidance, the defense said in the letter.

This is a guest post by L0LA L33TZ. The opinions expressed are entirely unique and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

The legal troubles of Do Kwon are far from over. A US federal judge has postponed his court hearing, originally set for March 6, after prosecutors uncovered a massive amount of new evidence.

With four terabytes of additional data now in play, the case against the Terraform Labs co-founder is becoming even more complex.

Massive Data Dump Forces Delay

Prosecutors have handed over 600 gigabytes of data to Kwon’s defense team so far. This includes materials from his phones, emails, and other electronic accounts. But now, with four terabytes of new evidence to examine, both sides need more time to prepare.

The court has pushed the hearing date to April 10 to allow prosecutors to sort through the files and the defense to review what could be critical information. The judge’s decision reflects the size of the data and its potential impact on the case.

Key Deadlines Before Do Kwon Trial

This delay has not changed the date of the trial—January 26, 2026. Both sides have until July 1 to submit pretrial motions; the deadline for reply is August 11. These filings most certainly will affect the arguments put up in court and during the trial.

After the prosecutors stated in a letter dated February 27 that they expected to produce an extra 4 gigabytes of discovery to the defense by the end of next week, Judge Paul Engelmayer delayed a hearing scheduled for March 6 to April 10 in an order dated March 3.

Excerpt from Judge Paul Engelmayer’s March 3 order that adjourned the next hearing to April 10. Source: CourtListener

After January 2025 pleading not guilty to nine felony fraud charges, Kwon enters a protracted legal fight. As the case develops, his defense team will work to refute the evidence and assertions of the prosecution.

The Collapse Of Terra And Kwon’s Arrest

Terraform Labs, the company Kwon co-founded, collapsed in May 2022. The failure of its algorithmic stablecoin, TerraClassicUSD (USTC), wiped out $60 billion in market value. The fallout led to widespread losses, investigations, and lawsuits.

BTCUSD trading at $88,335 on the daily chart: TradingView.com

After the collapse, Kwon moved between Singapore and Dubai before being arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 for using a fake passport. He served a four-month sentence there before being extradited to the US in December 2024.

What’s Next For Do Kwon?

With the case growing more complicated, Kwon’s future remains uncertain. The addition of four terabytes of evidence raises new questions about the strength of the prosecution’s case. If this material contains damning information, it could be bad news for Kwon.

For now, all eyes are on the upcoming hearing in April. The extra time may help both sides prepare, but it also signals that the legal battle over Terraform Labs is far from finished.

Featured image from Gemini Imagen, chart from TradingView