. on Nostr: #freesamourai 🈴 update via Zach Shapiro: "Defense counsel responded to SDNYletter, ...

#freesamourai 🈴 update via Zach Shapiro:

"Defense counsel responded to SDNYletter, absolutely eviscerating the Government's characterization of the Brady disclosure as an "informal" conversation that is not relevant to the prosecution's case:

"The information the Government suppressed for almost a year is classic Brady: During its investigation of Samourai Wallet, prosecutors called FinCEN to determine whether it would qualify as a “money services business” that was required to have a license and to implement anti-money laundering controls. Two FinCEN employees, including the Chief of FinCEN’s Virtual Assets and Emerging Technology Section in the Enforcement and Compliance Division, responded that, under FinCEN’s guidance, the answer was “no” because Samourai did not take custody of a user’s cryptocurrency. Because this response precisely echoes the public statements Samourai Wallet made about why its business did not run afoul of the licensing and money laundering requirements for money transmitters, FinCEN’s statements provide powerful corroboration of Mr. Hill and Mr. Rodriguez’s good faith belief that they were not violating any laws."

"Notwithstanding the negative response it received from FinCEN—the actual regulator responsible for enforcing the anti-money laundering rules that financial services providers must follow—prosecutors brought charges for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business anyway. Over the next year, prosecutors produced many terabytes of discovery, carefully avoiding disclosure of what they had to know would be a bombshell—proof of the very “regulation by prosecution” that two U.S. Senators protested at the time of the charges, that the cryptocurrency industry has decried in letters to Congress and the President, and that is now the subject of the Blanche Memo."

"[T]he Government argues that its “informal” call with FinCEN does not fall within the 'strict requirements' of Brady because FinCEN’s representatives were merely expressing an “individual opinion.” It then argues that the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the Chevron doctrine, means that FinCEN’s interpretation of the law lacks any 'authoritative effect.' This is sophistry. The reason why the August 23, 2023, call is favorable to the defense has nothing to do with whether the FinCEN employees were right or wrong about the law. Rather, it is the fact that they expressed the identical interpretation of the FinCEN guidance as the Defendants did in their public statements while they were supposedly knowingly engaged in a criminal conspiracy. That FinCEN employees—including the one responsible for enforcing FinCEN rules against companies like Samourai Wallet—had the same 'opinion' as Mr. Hill and Mr. Rodriguez is evidence that they reasonably believed that they did not require a FinCEN license or anti-money laundering controls."

"Moreover, by citing to a Supreme Court case about the level of deference owed to an agency’s interpretation of 'an ambiguous statute,' the Government unintentionally reveals the ugly truth that has made this prosecution so controversial from the start. The Government may not criminally prosecute Mr. Hill and Mr. Rodriguez for violations of 'an ambiguous statute.' For this reason, the Government’s continued failure to dismiss this prosecution under the Blanche Memo only delays what should be inevitable—the dismissal of the charges as a matter of law."

#bitcoin