In a letter to the Southern District of New York (SDNY) filed right this moment, the prosecutors within the Samourai Pockets case acknowledged that they didn’t withhold exculpatory proof and petitioned the decide for the case to disclaim the protection’s request for a listening to to debate the late disclosure of key info that prosecutors had obtained from FinCEN virtually two years in the past.
Earlier within the week, the protection acknowledged in a letter that they’d realized that FinCEN had “strongly steered” that Samourai Pockets was not performing as a cash transmitting enterprise because of the noncustodial nature of the product in a dialogue between sure FinCEN members (extra on these members two sections down) and the prosecutors on August 23, 2023.
This info got here to gentle because of a Brady movement that the protection had submitted. (Any such movement is called after the Brady v. Maryland Supreme Court docket case, which happened in 1963. The case established the Brady rule, which stipulates that exculpatory proof be offered to the protection in order that it may be utilized as part of due course of.)
On condition that one of many two fees the Samourai builders are dealing with is conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise, some felt that this new info coming to gentle may very well be grounds for dismissing the case.
No Dismissal, No Listening to
Nonetheless, right this moment’s letter from the prosecutors states that they don’t have any intention of dropping the case, nor do they really feel that the listening to requested by the protection is warranted.
“There isn’t a foundation for a listening to, neither is there something to treatment: the disclosure itself exhibits that the federal government has not violated Brady,” the prosecutors acknowledged within the letter. “The Authorities disclosed all recognized substantive communications between the prosecution crew and FinCEN months prematurely of pretrial motions and trial.”
The prosecutors added that they plan to proceed with the case, highlighting the second cost: conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
“As alleged, Samourai laundered over $100 million {dollars} of crime proceeds originating from, amongst different prison sources: unlawful darkweb markets, equivalent to Silk Highway and Hydra Market; varied wired fraud and laptop fraud schemes that disadvantaged victims of funds, together with web-server intrusion, a spear phishing scheme, and schemes to defraud a number of decentralized finance protocols; and different unlawful actions,” the prosecutors wrote.
Downplaying The Enter From FinCEN
Moreover, the prosecutors claimed that the truth that they solely lately disclosed their communications with FinCEN is irrelevant to the case, as a lot of the charged conduct doesn’t depend on FinCEN rules.
In addition they downplayed the significance of what was shared by the FinCEN workers who spoke with the prosecutors: Kevin O’Conner (Chief of FinCEN’s Digital Belongings and Rising Know-how Part within the Enforcement and Compliance Division) and Lorena Valente (an worker of FinCEN’s Coverage Division when she spoke with the prosecution).
The prosecutors referred to O’Conner and Valente’s opinions as “particular person, casual, and caveated,” including that they’d already offered “substantive e-mail correspondence between the prosecution crew and members of FinCEN referring to the August 23, 2023 name.”
They went on to state that “the person workers of FinCEN weren’t talking on behalf of FinCEN, they weren’t offering FinCEN’s opinion, they usually ‘didn’t have a way of what FinCEN would resolve if this query had been introduced to their FinCEN coverage committee.’”
No Brady Violation
Within the last part of the letter, the prosecutors asserted that they’d not violated authorized norms in not providing sure particulars of their August 23, 2023 name with FinCEN till this level within the pre-trial course of.
“The file exhibits that there was no Brady violation on this case,” wrote the prosecutors.
“The federal government disclosed the contents of this casual dialog to the protection prematurely of pretrial motions, and roughly seven months prematurely of trial in response to a request for that info,” they added. “Nothing extra is required.”
Lastly, in line with a Second Circuit ruling, which the prosecutors additionally talked about within the letter, so long as the protection possesses Brady proof in time for its efficient use, the federal government has not disadvantaged the protection of due course of.
What Comes Subsequent?
It’s unclear as to when Choose Berman will reply to right this moment’s letter from the prosecution.
The protection’s opening movement was initially scheduled for right this moment however has been pushed again two weeks. One week after the opening movement, the prosecution will reply to the protection’s opening movement.
As of the final pre-trial listening to, the prosecution is scheduled to offer its knowledgeable disclosure on July 15, 2025, and the protection is predicted to offer theirs by August 8, 2025.
The trial is scheduled to start on November 3, 2025.
For those who’d prefer to donate to the protection fund for the Samourai builders, you are able to do so through the P2P Rights Fund.
