A lawyer who represents one of the co-founders of the Crypto Mining Service Hashflare has discussed how their criminal case could advance after a pair received “self-deport” letters from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In an April 11 filing with the US district court for Washington’s Western District, Hashflare co-founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin reported that they received a letter of DHS directing them to “leave the United States” as part of the Trump administration’s push to affect mass deportation. The government’s letter contradicts orders from Judge Robert Lasnik, who restricts the journey for potapenko and tutogin as part of their bail conditions.
In February, the Estonian Nationals Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make wire fraud as part of a deal with the authorities. Between 2015 and 2019, the two are responsible for the suffering of Hashflare users of over $ 550 million. They also raised $ 25 million from investors in 2017, claiming that they would establish a digital bank called the Polybius. The firm was never created.
Accused in October 2022, Potapenko and Tutogin were arrested and held in Estonia before their Extradition in the US In May 2024. Both are free from bail since July 2024 but can face up to 20 years in prison each in the censorship.
Ordered to leave, forced to stay
“(Potapenko and Turabin each) get letters from DHS in their personal email saying ‘Deport right away,'” Reed Smith partner and Defense Counsel Mark Bini told Cointelegraph. “It brought some angle because (our client and his co-defendan), their conditions of liberation include that they obey the law. And here you have this letter that tells if you stay in the country, you are ruining the law. And of course, their bail conditions say they can’t leave the Seattle area.”
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DHS letters order some people to “leave immediately to the United States” are Reported Sent to thousands of immigrants who used the government’s CBP one app to enter the country legally. However, some citizens reported Receiving the same letter to the President’s President Donald Trump’s attempt to release deportations through his office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sumyysrjvzm
Bini initially thought that the US government would suggest that the “self-deport” “self-deport” in Estonia after the Department of Justice released a memo The indication will change its policy of implementing criminal cases involving crypto. Hashflare co-founders are expected to remain in the area until at least August 14 for their hearings.
“I have never encountered this situation before, where you have an important two people in the federal government that tells you adverse things,” Bini said.
The attorney added that Potapenko or Turabin has now brought letters to them all the time the DHS said that the action of their “self-reporting” has been postponed in one year in the event that authorities mistakenly tried them and removed them in the country. Although the pair could still receive prison time, Potapenko, Trogin and Hashflare reported returning $ 400 million to crypto payments to users and “consistently lose their interests in the owners that the government was frozen in 2022.”
“We will try and convince the judge who is openly with the DHS and let them report on Estonia to their families because we believe there is no actual financial damage to Hashflare customers,” Bini said. “This is a weird (case) because for our clients, we want to be deported. Our clients are estonians. Their families are Estonian.”
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