{"id":127492,"date":"2025-04-18T19:16:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T19:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127492"},"modified":"2025-04-18T19:16:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T19:16:30","slug":"us-prosecutors-to-pursue-ex-safemoon-ceo-case-despite-doj-memo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127492","title":{"rendered":"US prosecutors to pursue ex-SafeMoon CEO case despite DOJ memo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsFederal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo suggesting a policy of abandoning \u201cregulation by prosecution\u201d related to digital assets.
\nIn an April 18 filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, US Attorney for EDNY John Durham said his office had reviewed the April 7 DOJ memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and intended to proceed with a trial against Karony.
\nThe former SafeMoon CEO faces securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges for allegedly \u201cdivert[ing] and misappropriat[ing] millions of dollars\u2019 worth\u201d of the platform\u2019s SFM token between 2021 and 2022.
\nApril 18 notice that US prosecutors will continue to prosecute John Karony. Source: PACERKarony, initially indicted in October 2023 under former US Attorney for EDNY Breon Peace, argued in February that his criminal trial should be delayed, hinting that securities laws enforcement under the Donald Trump presidency could see \u201csignificant changes.\u201d The judge denied the motion and later ordered jury selection for the trial to begin on May 5.\u00a0
\nHowever, Karony\u2019s legal team made its claims about securities laws under Trump potentially undergoing \u201cpolicy changes\u201d before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed cases and dropped investigations into many crypto firms facing allegations of violating securities laws. Blanche\u2019s April 7 memo also suggested that the DOJ under Trump would direct jurisdictions not to pursue many crypto enforcement cases.
\nRelated: Democrats slam DOJ\u2019s \u2018grave mistake\u2019 in disbanding crypto crime unit
\n\u201c[T]he parties may learn within days or hours of the commencement of trial that DOJ no longer considers digital assets like SafeMoon to be \u2018securities\u2019 under the securities laws,\u201d said Karony\u2019s legal team on Feb. 5. \u201cWorse, the parties may learn this during or shortly after a trial, half of whose charges rest on the government\u2019s claim that SafeMoon is such a security.\u201d
\nCrypto enforcement by the SEC and DOJ under Trump
\nSince being appointed acting SEC chair by Trump in January, Mark Uyeda has led the agency to drop cases against Ripple Labs, Coinbase, Kraken, and others. The SEC has also launched a crypto task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce to explore a regulatory framework for digital assets, and issued a memo saying memecoins were not securities.
\nThe agency\u2019s actions suggest a more permissive approach to digital assets than that under former chair Gary Gensler.
\n\u201cBy directing the SEC to abdicate its critical mission of investor protection, Mr. Trump is unnecessarily endangering our financial system,\u201d said former SEC official John Reed Stark in an April 18 New York Times op-ed with Duke University lecturing fellow Lee Reiners. \u201cWhether he is doing so to keep his promise to crypto-donors or in a zeal to cash in (or perhaps even both), that is a troubling development not just for investors and banks, but for all of us.\u201d
\nWhether Trump\u2019s appointees in the Justice Department intend to step in and move to halt Karony\u2019s case, as the DOJ did in the corruption case with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is unclear. At the time of publication, the former SafeMoon CEO was set to go to trial in May and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
\nMagazine: SEC\u2019s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unansweredRead More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsFederal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo… <\/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\/127492"}],"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=127492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}