A lawyer who represents one in all the co-founders of the Hashflare crypto mining service has approached how his criminal proceedings can progress after the couple has received letters from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In a registration on April 11 on the US district court for the western district of Washington, the co-founders of Hashflare, Sergei Potapenko, and Ivan Turogin reported that that they had received a DHS letter during which they were instructed to “leave” the United States as a part of the Trump administration. The government letter contradicted the orders of judge Robert Lasnik, who limited the journey for Potapenko and Turogin as a part of their deposit.
In February, the Estonian nationals of the conspiracy were guilty of committing fraud with wire fraud as a part of an agreement with the authorities. Between 2015 and 2019, the 2 were accountable for betrayed Hashflare users of greater than 550 million US dollars. In 2017, in addition they collected 25 million US dollars from investors and claimed that they might arrange a digital bank called Polybius. The company was never created.
Potapenko and Turogin were charged in October 2022 and arrested in Estonia to the United States in Estonia in May 2024. Both have been released since July 2024, but were capable of have as much as 20 years in prison within the conviction.
To be ordered, forced to remain
“[Potapenko and Turogin each] Received letters from DHS to her personal e -mail, which immediately became “Deportation”, said the partner and defender of Reed Smith, Mark Bini, to CoinTelegraph. “It caused some fear because [our client and his co-defendant]Your publication conditions include that you simply comply with the law. And here you’ve gotten this letter with the inscription if you stay within the country, the law violates. And after all their deposit conditions say that they can’t leave the Seattle area. ”
The DHS letters during which certain people were instructed to “leave the United States immediately” were reportedly sent hundreds of immigrants who had used the federal government's CBP One app to legally enter the country. However, some residents stated that the identical letter within the tests of US President Donald Trump stated that he caused deportations through his office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sumyysrjvzm
Bini initially gave a possibility that the US government suggested that Potapenko or Turogin had exhibited a memo after the Ministry of Justice in Estonia, which indicated that it might change its enforcement directive in criminal matters with crypto. The co -founders of Hashflare were expected that they’ll remain in jurisdiction until at the very least August 14 for his or her hearings.
“I even have not yet met this example during which they essentially have two people within the federal government who tell them contradictory things,” said Bini.
The lawyer added that Potapenko or Turogin now carried letters in any respect times at which DHS had pushed measures on their “self -covering” for a yr if the authorities mistakenly tried to capture them and take away them from the country. Although the couple could still receive a jail sentence, Potapenko, Turogin and Hashflare stated that he returned 400 million US dollars of crypto payments to users and “agreed to increase their interests to assets that the federal government frozen in 2022.”
“We will attempt to openly persuade the judge of DHS and to prove them to their families themselves to Estonia because we imagine that Hashflare doesn’t cause any actual financial damage,” said Bini. “It's strange [case] Because we wish to be deported for our customers. Our customers are Estonian. Your families are Estonian. ”
