{"id":126856,"date":"2025-04-10T04:16:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T04:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=126856"},"modified":"2025-04-10T04:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T04:16:18","slug":"safemoon-boss-cites-dojs-nixed-crypto-unit-in-latest-bid-to-toss-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=126856","title":{"rendered":"SafeMoon boss cites DOJ\u2019s nixed crypto unit in latest bid to toss suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsBraden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has cited the US Department of Justice\u2019s directive to no longer pursue some crypto charges in an effort to get the case against him and his firm dismissed.\u00a0<br \/>\nIn an April 9 letter to New York federal court judge Eric Komitee, Karony\u2019s attorney, Nicholas Smith, said the court should consider an April 7 memo from US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that disbanded the DOJ\u2019s crypto unit.<br \/>\n\u201cThe Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,\u201d Blanche said in the memo, which added the DOJ \u201cwill no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets.\u201d<br \/>\nBlanche also directed prosecutors not to charge violations of securities and commodities laws when the case would require the DOJ to determine if a digital asset is a security or commodity when charges such as wire fraud are available.<br \/>\nAn excerpt of the letter Karony sent to Judge Komitee. Source: PACERIn the footnote of the letter, Karony\u2019s counsel wrote an exemption to the DOJ\u2019s new directive would be if the parties have an interest in defending that a crypto asset is a security, but added that \u201cKarony does not have such an interest.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed simultaneous charges of securities violations, wire fraud, and money laundering against Karony and other SafeMoon executives in November 2023.<br \/>\nThe government alleged Karony, SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy and chief technology officer Thomas Smith withdrew assets worth $200 million from the project and misappropriated investor funds.\u00a0<br \/>\nAnother attempt to nix the case<br \/>\nThe letter is Karony\u2019s latest attempt to get the case thrown out. In February, he asked that his trial, scheduled to begin on March 31, be delayed as he argued President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed crypto policies could potentially affect the case.<br \/>\nRelated: OKX pleads guilty, pays $505M to settle DOJ charges<br \/>\nLater in February, Smith changed his plea to guilty and said he took part in the alleged $200 million crypto fraud scheme. Nagy is at large and is believed to be in Russia.<br \/>\nSafeMoon filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, a month after it was hit with twin cases from the SEC and DOJ. It was also hacked in March 2023, with the hacker agreeing to return 80% of the funds.<br \/>\nMagazine: 3 reasons Ethereum could turn a corner: Kain Warwick, X Hall of Flame<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/safemoon-ceo-cites-doj-nixed-crypto-unit-dismiss-suit?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsBraden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has cited the US Department of Justice\u2019s directive to no longer pursue some crypto charges in an effort to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126856"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}