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Just 4 months ahead of their criminal sentencing for operating a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the 2 Estonian founders of HashFlare were seemingly mistakenly ordered to self-deport by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — an instruction that directly contradicted a court order for the boys to stay in Washington state until they’re sentenced in August.
In a joint letter to the court last week, lawyers for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin told District Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington that each men had received “disturbing communications” from DHS ordering them to depart the country immediately.
“It is time for you to depart the United States,” an email to Potapenko and Turogin dated April 11 read. “DHS is terminating your parole. Do not try to remain within the United States – the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.”
The email, included with the letter filed last week, threatened each men with “criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties and every other lawful options available to the federal government” in the event that they stayed within the country. It resembles emails that undocumented immigrants and U.S. residents alike have received over the past few days.
Ironically, Potapenko and Turogin should not within the U.S. of their very own volition — they were extradited from their native Estonia on the request of the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 on an 18-count indictment tied to their HashFlare scheme. Though they initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, in February they each pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. They have each been within the Seattle area on bond since last July.
“Although there’s nothing Ivan and Sergei would want greater than to instantly go home, they understood that also they are under Court order to stay in King County,” wrote Mark Bini, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and lead counsel for Potenko, wrote within the pair’s joint letter to the court.
In his letter, Bini said DHS’s emails had caused each Potapenko and Turogin “significant anxiety.”
“We and our clients have all seen recent news. Immigration authorities make mistakes, and individuals who shouldn’t be in custody find yourself in custody, sometimes even deported to places where they shouldn’t be deported,” Bini wrote.
Reached for comment by CoinDesk, Bini added that Potapenko was “in a bind caught between two opposing instructions from the U.S. government.”
“DHS told him in no uncertain terms to deport immediately or he can be committing a criminal offense, but DOJ has told him that he must stay and may’t leave the Seattle area,” Bini told CoinDesk. “Sentencing will show that there was no financial harm on this case, and we hope that at the moment the Court will permit Sergei to return home to his family in Estonia immediately.”
Six days after Bini’s letter to the judge, the DOJ filed its own letter with the court saying that prosecutors had coordinated with DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division and secured a year-long deferral to the self-deportation order.
“This should provide ample time for the sentencing to happen,” the prosecution’s letter said.
DHS didn’t reply to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
Potapenko and Turogin are slated to be sentenced on August 14 in Seattle. Their lawyers have said that they may request to be sentenced to time served, meaning no additional time in prison, and to be sent home to Estonia “immediately.”
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