Originally published at: Crypto6 Day 6: Another Day In La La Land & Dirty Government Tricks | Free Keene
Joa from Breaking The Flaw Crypto6 Jury Drawing
Today we get further confirmation from the governments own ‘victim’ witnesses that Ian’s not involved in scamming in any shape or form. We try and follow along with what the governments dirty tricks are and what the point of introducing certain audio and video clips are. The government touches on an “international” bank account, a threatening FinCEN letter, and a letter from Attorney Seth Hipple advising the church it’s not required to register as a money services business under state or federal law. The government has been kind enough to submit these documents to the docket for us so everyone can read them for themselves.
Also take note that the trial has been on hiatus due to Renee and lawyer falling ill, but it is planned to resume Monday December 19th at 9AM. The defense should begin introducing it’s own witnesses and evidence and likely get way more interesting. The trial is open to the public and supporters of the Crypto6 are highly encouraged to attend. The address of the courthouse is: 55 Pleasant St, Concord, NH 03301. Also note that you don’t have to come for the full day. It starts at 9AM and there is usually an hour for lunch with a conclusion of the trial day at 5PM.
Crypto6 Day 6
FBI agent from prior day takes the stand again and prosecution continues questioning the ‘witness’…
Crypto Church Of New Hampshire Questions
Certificate of invisible hand trade name document on screen
Certify’s nobody is certificate to do business as church of the invisible hand
NH Peace Church
7/22/2020
Document shown on screen: Trade name registration for NH Peace Church
Certificate of registered trade name: NH Peace Church
Showing drivers license and passports of Renee, Nobody, and others
[The ‘expert’ refers to “Word documents”, but humorously these are actually LibreOffice documents in a different format being shown on a computer that merely is associating them with Microsoft Word, yes, this is who we are suppose to be relying on tell us Ian’s guilty of some not-very-clear ‘crime’, all the while exposing their own ‘victims’ to ‘identity theft’… I’ll quote the word ‘identity theft’ as this is actually a fraud against another, not the individual whose identity has been used and moves the blame or really liability from those accepting said documents to other parties primarily being the victims]
List of folders with bank names shown
~ 15 banks
GFA Letter
Suspected fraudulent activity, froze account, colleene
Has determined account has been used to exchange virtual currency for real currency
You may be a money transmitter
Document shown on screen: International Bank Application Ian Filled Out
International Bank Account Application
Q Does it say profit from bitcoin sales?
A No
[humorous cause it does say church investments which would include bitcoin ‘profits’]
~ 16 exchanged listed in folder on Ian’s laptop on screen
[really it’s the church’s laptop, there exists a double standard here and depending on when it is convenient for them to say it’s Ian’s laptop or the church as both have financial implications in legal land]
Showing church policies on screen
[verification and KYC policies which are done with intent to stop fraud, whether or not it works, these are the governments own rules for what banks have to do even if they’re not technically applicable to the church’s sale of its own bitcoin]
Shows document on screen which banks church has “broken up” with
~22 banks listed
~7 rejected in advance
~6 active banks
Exchange statuses
Ian OK at ~7
Colleen OK at ~1
~9 denied or canceled
[remember that what a bank can legally do or the risks thereof is not the same thing as what you can do as a customer thereof, so for instance, you might have worked in the sex industry 20 years ago, nothing illegal about that, it’s not illegal for you to open a bank account, but banks will likely cut you off because the banks have been threatened by a bureaucrat at the federal level via a letter sent to all financial institutions, this actually happened not that long ago, and as a result all financial institutions in the US cut off anybody connected to the sex industry- the letter used words like “sex trafficking”- but that’s merely code for anything connected to sex, you opening a bank account, them closing it, and you repeatedly doing this at other banks doesn’t make you guilty of a crime, and the banks generally don’t tell you why they are closing your account for liability reasons]
Now looking at downloads folder on screen
Third folder down is KYC folder
Q What is that?
A It stands for know your customer
[I wonder how she knows what Ian’s intentions were for that, though it’s almost certainly a correct interpretation of what he intended, you’d think they’d need to have Ian up on the stand to testify to it, not some third party]
Q What is the last folder?
A Telegram desktop
Ian recommendation file
Showing (Melanie Neighbours Tax Planning & Preparation) Unsigned/recommendation/certification of asset document
KYC Telegram folder shown on screen
This folder shows a list of peoples names with KYC documents in them
[yes, the government is exposing these people and putting them at risk of ‘identity fraud’ during the trial, none of it is censored, or more honestly the government is aiding fraudsters who need ID information like this in defrauding others]
[FBI agent is confirming what is found in KYC folder contains ID of people who testified as “victim” witnesses at trial previously]
Q Did you go through all photos of all people?
A Yes
Q What was the average age?
A 59 from 2020
[there were 4,000 transactions, and these was a TINY fraction, call me skeptical, it’s not clear if these were folks that the church was calling to do verification with which would also have bumped the age of these folks up, but even if it was the average age of those conducting 4,000 transactions suggests that you’re not allowed to do sell bitcoin to older people which just sounds crazy- you’ll note later though that the ‘red flags’- a government term doesn’t actually mean you have to stop a transaction either so if these are people who were ‘red flags’ and the church did do business with them after a phone call that would be identical to what the banks procedure if not more than what financial institutions do]
Q You found Patrick Brown folder empty when you got it?
A Yes
[thinking about this a bit this is what I’d probably consider remnants, just not in it’s better more obvious form, but basically it’s partial data left over after some task has been performed and only gives you a partial picture of things]
[It’s curious to note that it would appear they are trying to point out that Ian missed or lost records or something happened to KYC records assuming they’re not just stored somewhere more permanent elsewhere of ONE ‘victim’ which is interesting because later we also see the banks have lost data as well yet the government doesn’t make them out to be scum]
They are going through dozens of picture IDs to show the various ages of some of the people, but not all of the people in this folder
Of those they are showing it appears to be those in the 45-70 age range mostly
[something else to note here is that they are not all victims and there is nothing suggesting that these are all victims… rather the government is trying to show through implication of the fact that this folder had a lot of older people in it that Ian is somehow guilty of targeting older folks and working with scammers]
[weird fed church photo on screen in one folder but out of place, how did it get there? presumably it ended up there by accident, but it’s curious mostly just in that I’m not sure what federal incident the photo comes from, there have not been that many, but I guess there have been some other incidents particularly if it’s quite dated]
[it’s very apparent that the prosecutor is trying to convince the jury buying bitcoin as an older person is illegal or should be]
Q Anything else you noticed?
A Buying on behalf of another
Playing audio exhibit from FTL
[unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture the episode this came from, it’ was a VERY brief cut of a show, clearly intentionally misleading although I’m not sure what it was suppose to show exactly]
Ian, Aria, Matt, and a caller talk about the Nigerian scammer
Ian “So you got hit for over $16,000?”
Ian “What was going through head?”
Caller “Never said to write no refunds”
Talking about man in the middle attack
[I’m not clear if this was someone who got scammed by someone pretending to be Ian online or what the case was, but I think that might have been what happened here, and the misleading part on the prosecutor’s side might be that they want the jury to think Ian was somehow actively partaking in scamming people and then talking about it on air with the victim of his scam?]
[I mean, it seems like what this should be showing if played and explained in context is that Ian is aware of and warns people about these sorts of scams, but this isn’t the defense playing this, it’s cut up by the prosecution with some sort of specific intent]
Good client bought on multiple occasions and was buying for good friend
All hoops for know your customer were jumped through
Ian “I generally don’t do third party trades either, but this was a good customer”
[aww maybe the objective here although poorly explained to the jury is the “third party trades”]
Q Is this what you saw?
A No
[this audio is undated, maybe third party trades became more common? it’s not like we have a ton of third party trades evidence here by the prosecution though anyway given only a small small percentage were shown of the ~4000 transactions]
[something else to point out is people don’t start getting social security until 62-70 depending on different factors and the average age was 59 according to the governments own math]
Q Was this person asked why they had so much cash they wanted to turn into bitcoin?
A No
Q Where was all this?
A On Ian freeman’s computer
[again, wrong, it was the church’s laptop, how can someone testify to something they don’t even know the answer to and while this may not be useful to the defense I’d still love to have asked the question what is your basis for claiming this is Ian’s laptop? it’s presumably the user name ftl_ian, but if that is the case then if I create a user called FBI can I claim it was the FBI’s computer when they seize it as evidence and try to use something on it from my house? the other thing is I’m pretty darn sure there were other people who touched that system here and there and I think this comes up somewhere too which begs the question how did you do determine who was the person who actively created a given document? etc]
Q How many did you interview?
A 30-40
[that’s a pretty big gap… ya think you might be able to do a little bit better than that as far as narrowing down the #?]
Q Did any not have third party involved?
A No
[so you selectively looked then… hmmm if you only look at x you’ll only find x, and I’m also curious what is mean by third party here exactly hmmm]
Q Are you trying to investigate one of the people in the Telegram folder?
A Yes
Q What makes this one different?
A We have his true name
[correct me if I’m mistaken, but don’t you have the true name of everyone? aka that is what is happening with KYC after all.. you’re getting a picture of both the ID and the ID next to the person for all persons in the transaction… and isn’t this the result of IDK Ian doing KYC and the church having a policy thereof which I think you already testified to here at this point in the trial ]
Q What has been different in these types of scams?
A Fake name, no ID
“in this case bitcoin clouds the money even more”
[but he got ID!!!!!! so lets get this right… he used a fake name and had no idea between the victim and the scammer, but the church got ID and it was a result of the raid and the church doing KYC that you got the ID? right? right ?]
A 2019 audio clip of free talk live is played
Ian “this show is generally got an older audience”
Ian “and also unfortunately the age of target scammer”
[it seems very much like they are trying to pull stuff out of context and are trying to suggest the church’s objective is to scam older folks]
Q What is in this folder?
A Signed agreements for assistant positions, termination agreements
On screen is an agreement between shire [free church I presuming?] and aria [reformed satanic church I’m presuming] for loan of $72,000, 50 BCH to spread crypto
A similar agreement is also shown that is signed between the shire free church and nobody
Play two related audios from BoA recorded call
[aka for quality and assurance purposes this call is being recorded … or something like that!]
Nobody: My first and and last name is nobody
Nobody: Actually fnk nobody
Nobody: Church of the invisible hand
BoA representative: How can I assist you?
Nobody: I’ve got an ongoing dispute with the bank for some time, you shut down account
Nobody: You still owe us $40,000
Nobody: Your belief is our customer defrauded someone else
Nobody: I would like a police report and full accounting of what happened with the money
Nobody: It has to come back or be explained
BoA representative: Ok awww….
[speechless]
Nobody: I do have a claim #, let me find my reading glasses
Nobody: I got church treasurer on the line
Ian: I got reference #
New witness
Name: Dannela Virel
Q Live?
A Portagon, Fl
Q How long?
A 30 years
76
2012 retired
widow since 2018
financial flanner
Q Dec of 2014 were you on a dating website?
A Match.com
I met Jerry Harmon and he worked on oil rigs
He lived in Raleigh, NC
We would Skype and text
Skype video site in beginning and then telephone calls later
Q Was an actual person on Skype?
A Yes
Yes, same voice as in video
Q How often?
A Several times of day
Talked about children, what he did in his time off, etc
Q You spoke to family too?
A Yes
A women claimed to be his sister
Q Did you make arrangements to see him?
A Yes, but when arrived was told to go to Alexandria, Virginia
Q Did you see him during your trip?
A No
Q Did he send you any gifts?
A Yes, but he didn’t know about them so it must have been someone else
[very bizarre, you’d think she’d just have said no if she knew they weren’t from the guy]
Q He’d send you photos of himself?
A Yes
Q His oil rig broke and asked me for money? Did you send money?
A Yes
I sent him wires from bank. I was given detailed instructions on where to send and what to put on the paperwork as dictated by Mr Freeman via Harmon.
Q What kind of photos were sent?
A Myself and ID/documents
Exhibit on screen of victim with ID shown
[aka the scammer’s victim, they’re not saying Ian scammed anyone, just that he worked with scammers, of which they have provided no evidence, and the governments own witnesses all testified to the fact the scammers didn’t work with Ian]
Q What did you send?
A I sent a photo to Mr Harmon
Q What is this photo?
A Wire transfer document
Q What does it say?
A I authorized….
[this is just a standard disclaimer that the church requires the deposit of cash or in this case the wirer of the funds to put on the receipt to ensure that they understand what the wire is for aka buying bitcoin, from localbitcoin.com or telegram, the username used, signature, and date, etc]
Q Date of wire?
A Jan 15, 2020
Q Sent to?
A Ian B Freeman
Q What is reference?
A Drilling equipment and virtual goods supplied to me by jerry
Q Date of 2nd wire?
A Jan 21, 2020
Q Did you know why you had to put rebeca down as to who you were buying bitcoin for?
A No
[ok, so, we’re all suppose to stop buying or selling bitcoin or anything else online because there are vulnerable people in the world? come on…]
Q Did you know what bitcoin was at the time?
A Yes
[I kid you not, she actually says she did know what she was buying at the time, but not who it was for]
Q Why did you use two banks?
A To avoid red flags
[doesn’t this sound awfully couched? How many times have you heard an old lady utilize the term red flag?]
Q Who told you this?
A Jerry
[I am skeptical here because I don’t think scammers know of or utilize this terminology ‘red flag’, but maybe I’m just not familiar enough with the scamming world]
Q Did you speak to freeman?
A yes
Q Did you call him?
A He called me, once or twice
Q What did he ask?
A If I wanted to send this money
[so this is evidence that the church’s policy was followed… when a ‘red flag’ occurs the thing a bank might do, but won’t do generally most of the time is take an additional step to approve a transaction or investigate and confirm… the government is evidencing Ian did more than the banks were doing and wasn’t even technically required to do it as he and the church are not a money transmitter and nor a financial institution that is regulated by the feds according to their own rules and of which the lawyers already had advised of]
Q Did Mr Freeman ask why you were buying drilling equipment?
A No
Q About what bitcoin was?
A No
The following day he said he was needing to pay tax at port so I broke up with him
Bank told me that wire was fraudulent and if you accept fraudulent wire you would be on the hook for it so I declined it
[I’m pretty sure she is talking about the scammer here given she didn’t have a relationship with Ian]
Q Where did money come from?
A Sale of plane, money I made, inheritance from mother and partner
Q How has this impacted you?
A Changed how I live
Defense Cross Examines ‘Victim’ Witness
The lawyer starts off with kind words saying “I was touched by your story”
Q This Harmon guy was a fabrication?
A Yes
Q You invested a lot in the guy not just money?
A I did
Q After one video did you preserve it?
A I have no idea
Q Did government ask for it?
A No
Q Charlotte was a setup right?
A Yes
Q You got to Alexandria you had specific place to meet?
A No
Q He never sent flowers?
A He never said that, but sent in his name despite this he seemed unaware
Q Did Chase bank advice this might be a problem?
A No
No one managed my money
Q They didn’t question what you did with your money?
A Right
Q You did wire with other bank to avoid authorities?
A Yes, Jerry said to
Q You never asked about Rebeca?
A That is correct
Q Two short calls with Ian Freeman?
A Yes
Q Asked if really wanted to send money? He was concerned?
A Yes
[ok, so red flag, warned, sent money anyway, exactly what the bank would do in most cases assuming they even went that far as the evidence shows from these government witnesses that the banks rarely questioned transactions]
Q Did he know who Jerry Harmon was?
A I don’t know
Q Did Harmon know Ian?
A He represented himself as knowing Ian
Q He represented himself as a lot of things that were untrue, right?
A That is correct
[yikes!]
Back to FBI case manager agent
Prosecutor asks questions first
Q Do you recall how much was being discussed?
A About $350,000 and $40,000
Q Documents found at radio studio?
A Yes
BoA audio played
Ian “My name is nobody and church of the invisible hand”
Ian: “So BoA decided they would close my church account, but decided that a wire was fraudulent so went to local branch and James Baker came (Aria) and he certified that it was not fraud and notarized it.”
Ian: “No one in your department indicated they got it.”
Ian: “You are sitting on $350,000 and I’d like to get that back”
Q Was that nobody?
A No, it was Ian
[just love this, cause he’s presumably authorized to speak on nobody’s behalf]
Search warrants for emails: shirebtc@gmail.com
From Ian to Chris
We don’t check it because vending machine is part of church and respect privacy
Q Letter say bank wants to know source of funds?
A Yes
Q Did he reply?
A Yes
Ian said: “We have received contributions from people in various parts of the US, is that a problem?”
Reply “No, not a problem”
Ian: “Are you referring to check that came out?”
Q Any discussion of bitcoin?
A No
One email says
“Never invest more you can afford to lose”
email (FinCEN letter):
Threatening FinCEN Letter Displayed On Screen
Another letter from Attorney Seth Hipple is displayed about how a vending machine is not an ATM and no KYC is required to sell crypto from ones own wallet.
Letter Written By Attorney Seth Hipple Explaining Why Church Is Not A Money Service Business
Another set of letters is shown on the screen to at least one or more banks in an effort to find a less hostile bank and identify what the issue is exactly that causes banks to close accounts. The letter asks one of the banks is it threats or fines by government?
Plays video clip where I believe it is Ian talking about vending machine and explains that it is like candy, can’t be taxed, can’t be stolen, I didn’t ask permission to sell Bitcoin.
[note: Ian’s not required to ask permission to sell Bitcoin as prior letters from attorney clearly state no registration is required at state or federal levels within the context of the churchs crypto operations]
That’s it for day 6!
If you got this far you might also consider gifting Joa from Breaking The Flaw some crypto. He has consistently come out to the trial, drawn cartoons for us, and helped with making little protests outside the courthouse like that of last week an amazing success. No one here is getting paid to write these articles, take notes, make drawings, film, or do really any other connected activity. That means any fiscal contribution you might consider making to offset our, or in this case Joa’s costs to come out to the trial and produce these drawings for us is greatly appreciated.
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