Simply 4 months forward of their felony sentencing for working a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the 2 Estonian founders of HashFlare had been seemingly mistakenly ordered to self-deport by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) — an instruction that instantly contradicted a court docket order for the lads to stay in Washington state till they’re sentenced in August.
In a joint letter to the court docket final week, legal professionals for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin instructed District Decide Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington that each males had acquired “disturbing communications” from DHS ordering them to go away the nation instantly.
“It’s time so that you can depart the US,” an e mail to Potapenko and Turogin dated April 11 learn. “DHS is terminating your parole. Don’t try to stay in the US – the federal authorities will discover you. Please depart the US instantly.”
The e-mail, included with the letter filed final week, threatened each males with “felony prosecution, civil fines, and penalties and some other lawful choices obtainable to the federal authorities” in the event that they stayed within the nation. It resembles emails that undocumented immigrants and U.S. residents alike have acquired over the previous few days.
Sarcastically, Potapenko and Turogin will not be within the U.S. of their very own volition — they had been extradited from their native Estonia on the request of the U.S. Division of Justice in 2022 on an 18-count indictment tied to their HashFlare scheme. Although they initially pleaded not responsible to all expenses, in February they each pleaded responsible to 1 depend of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail, and agreed to forfeit over $400 million in property. They’ve each been within the Seattle space on bond since final July.
“Though there’s nothing Ivan and Sergei would need greater than to right away go house, they understood that also they are below Courtroom order to stay in King County,” wrote Mark Bini, a accomplice at Reed Smith LLP and lead counsel for Potenko, wrote within the pair’s joint letter to the court docket. Bini didn’t reply to CoinDesk’s request for remark.
In his letter, Bini stated DHS’s emails had brought on each Potapenko and Turogin “vital anxiousness.”
“We and our purchasers have all seen current information. Immigration authorities make errors, and people who shouldn’t be in custody find yourself in custody, typically even deported to locations the place they shouldn’t be deported,” Bini wrote.
Six days after Bini’s letter to the choose, the DOJ filed its personal letter with the court docket saying that prosecutors had coordinated with DHS’s Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) division and secured a year-long deferral to the self-deportation order.
“This could present ample time for the sentencing to happen,” the prosecution’s letter stated.
DHS didn’t reply to CoinDesk’s request for remark.
Potapenko and Turogin are slated to be sentenced on August 14 in Seattle. Their legal professionals have stated that they are going to request to be sentenced to time served, which means no extra time in jail, and to be despatched house to Estonia “instantly.”
