Originally published at: Judge Grants Downward Variance In Crypto6 Case: Aria DiMezzo Sentenced To 18 Months | Free Keene
A few dozen of the ~50 supporters who turned out for Aria’s sentencing hearing
A judge in the Crypto6 case has sentenced Free State activist Aria DiMezzo to 18 months in federal prison on Tuesday for operating a cryptocurrency business without a government permission slip.
In September of 2022 Aria was coerced into taking a plea deal over a politically motivated attack on Ian Freeman, the Shire Free Church, and Free Talk live. Fraudulent charges were brought against Aria by the feds claiming that she operated an unlicensed money transmitting business. Ignorance in the courts as to what Bitcoin was unfortunately left Aria in a very difficult situation. Judge Joseph Laplante didn’t understand what Bitcoin was and after some effort to explain it failed he was left believing that the blockchain was a person. It isn’t. The blockchain is more akin to a database or a ledger of records.
Aria Talks To Reporters After Sentencing Decision Is Handed Down Outside Court
Under the money transmitter statutes one is a money transmitter and requires a money transmitting license if one acts as an intermediary to move money from one location to another or from one person to another for profit. Examples of this include Western Union, Money Gram, and Walmart’s Walmart2Walmart money transfer service. Bitcoin isn’t money in the sense that the laws define it under the money transmission statutes- particularly those that were at play during the time that sales of Bitcoin by the two churches occurred.
Aria nor the Reformed Satanic Church had any obligation to register with the state or federal government according to the banking bureaucrats and lawyers. As such neither the Shire Free Church nor the Reformed Satanic Church were registered as money transmitting entities. Agents of the state made clear during state hearings that Bitcoin wasn’t regulated under these money transmission statutes saying that moving Bitcoin from ones own wallet to that of another is not regulated. It’s possible that in some states and countries Bitcoin is regulated or it is under other circumstances. However, according to the lawyers that wasn’t the case here as the churches crypto vending machines were not connected to an exchange and did not act as an intermediary. For this and other reasons including the lack of conducting such activities for profit registration at the state and federal levels were not required.
The prosecution has attempted to imply that the churches were fake through use of choice words such as “purported churches” while never providing any evidence (such as during Ian Freeman’s trial) that the churches were in fact fake. Rather what was revealed during Ian Freeman’s trial was that the churches were real. The Shire Free Church is an interfaith church founded in 2013 with the aim of promoting peace, love, and liberty and anyone of any belief with that as its foundation is welcome. It wasn’t until many years later that the Shire Free Church setup a Bitcoin outreach operation to promote and raise funds for charitable causes. To that end the church did setup a DBA called the Crypto Church Of New Hampshire for the those outreach efforts, but this was merely one outreach effort involving crypto, not a church unto itself. Other non-crypto outreach efforts occurred as well such as helping the homeless, orphans in Africa, and locally persecuted religious minority: A minority Muslim community in Keene. The Shire Free Church has for over a decade helped low income families and others with drug addictions. The church has raised funds to build orphanages in Africa and helped minority religious groups in Keene by providing space and covering costs to renovate said space to be a mosque. During the cleaning and renovation period parishioners of the Shire Free Church got together and cleaned the space that would become the mosque. While the Reformed Satanic Church was at the time of the raid a young church the church and its parishioners had participated in fundraising activities to help kids with cancer. DiMezzo’s church sold about ~$3,178,895 of Bitcoin between June of 2020 and January of 2021 with about $30,000 being raised for charity according to prosecutors (though they would not call it charity, but profit despite no evidence to that end).
The prosecution claimed DiMezzo worked closely with Freeman, and discussion during her sentencing hearing hinged largely on this connection. This connection was manipulative in that the Shire Free Church had been around and selling crypto for many years prior to the Reformed Satanic Churches founding. As a result the church had one of the best ratings and demand from those wanting to purchase cryptocurrency. The Shire Free Churches operation couldn’t handle it and as a result Ian starter referring people to the Reformed Satanic Church. As both churches were going above and beyond what was required by law each did what is required of money transmitters- that is they did something called “know your customer” even though they didn’t have to. Know your customer is basically a system for deterring criminals from utilizing money transmitting services in their criminal operations by requiring banks and money transmitters to identify customers and ask questions. It’s an imperfect if not entirely broken system- but the idea is that if you identify your customer by requiring ID and ask appropriate questions you can thwart some scammers and criminal activity. In that process the churches would require people to submit paperwork including copies of IDs or passports, pictures of notes stating that they understood what they were buying was Bitcoin, and in many instances calls would be made to those purchasing Bitcoin. Questions would be asked in an attempt to weed out potential victims. In one case Ian was quoted as having asked a women if she had ever met her husband just to make sure that she wasn’t being manipulated. Unfortunately the reality is victims of scams will often say anything that they are told by scammers in order to get around KYC efforts. Of interesting note is that not a single bank even bothered to call any of the 7-8 victims regarding these transactions that the state put up on the stand to testify. A credit union employee who testified for the prosecution and was the credit unions expert on know your customer even testified that financial institutions aren’t required to stop suspicious transactions as this is why the credit union didn’t cut off the Shire Free Church until numerous transactions had occurred. No, the churches went above and beyond what was required and this is why Aria’s phone and Ian’s computer contained photos of which the prosecutor attempted to manipulate into being evidence of a connection. Out of 6,000 transactions a few victims had utilized both the Shire Free Church and the Reformed Satanic Church’s services. Even had such a connection existed there was no evidence of fraud presented during Ian’s trial, just mere implications that Ian should have been suspicious of some transactions because the persons were elderly. As if elderly persons aren’t interested in Bitcoin. Humorously the defense lawyer pointed out most of the victims were younger than he was. The victims even testified that Ian Freeman was not part of the scams so to try and suggest Aria knew of the scam by way of Ian was just propitious given neither knew of the individualized scams at the time Bitcoin transactions were occurring.
In the sentencing memorandum, the defense requested three years of supervised release with one of those years to be home confinement. The prosecutors on the other hand demanded the maximum sentence that the plea agreement would allow for: 37 months in prison.
The defense won their argument that bringing in Ian Freeman’s trial was inappropriate and the judge stated in his decision on the sentence “I’m considering not a shred of evidence from the Freeman trial”. Aria will have to pay a $2,500 fine, $100 special assessment, serve 18 months in a cage, and serve one year of supervised release following her release from prison.
The hearing brought out around ~50 supporters, mostly Free Staters who understood that this was a case of political persecution and attempt to take out Ian Freeman and Free Talk Live. One FBI agent Phil Christiana in particular has been at the core of these attacks. FBI agent Phil Christiana has had his sight on Ian Freeman and other Free Staters for over a decade. The FBI targeted Ian Freeman in at least 2012, 2016, and 2021. The 2012 incident involved an arrest of Rich Paul over small time drug dealing (Mr Nobody of the Crypto6 case) for the purposes of blackmailing him into wearing a wire into the Keene activist center (of which were connected to Ian Freeman). The 2016 case involved a smear campaign and a false affidavit where a warrant was obtained for a search over a despicable crime that hadn’t occurred in an effort to ruin Ian’s reputation and undermine the ability of Free Talk Live to continue. It was also an attempt at dividing the Free Sate Project community in two and undermining its effectiveness at bringing like-minded pro-freedom pro-peace individuals to New Hampshire. The Free State Project can be summarized as a migration effort to build a community of peaceful people in one state that can achieve real freedom somewhere. No evidence was ever found on any of more than two dozen devices seized in 2016 and no charges were ever filed. Then in 2021 the Crypto6 case was brought despite the individuals targeted being excessively compliant with the law.
Aria’s sentence will begin June 27 and give her time to officiate a wedding.
After the sentencing hearing Aria was greeted by about ~50 supporters and when asked about her thoughts on the sentence she said she believed “having a license wouldn’t have achieved anything”. Another cryptocurrency vending machine operator in the audience with over 20 machines agreed with her assessment calling the sentence unfair. Others thought this case to be yet another travesty of the so called justice system and yet another fraud on the public. What happens in court doesn’t matter so long as the prosecution tells a good story and judges and juries continue to be carefully crafted to favor prosecutors. Most prosecutors including judge La Plante in this case are former prosecutors. Out of 36 members (after eliminating others from the pool) the prosecutor removed the only juror who had ever touched Bitcoin.
A detailed run down of what happened during Aria’s sentencing hearing
Prosecutor
Aframe & Kennedy
Aria elects to continue despite lawyer’s motion to delay as a result of freemans trial
Judge talks about sentencing guidelines and not having to obey them
Defense
Objections to PSR (pre-sentcing report done by the probation department) do not directly involve freeman case and are not connected to Aria
Judge
Offense level is 19
Criminal History Level 1
This is the bottom of the scale
30-37 months is the range according to the sentencing guideline
Fine is $10-100k + $100 special assessment fee
Aria is requesting a downward variance from these guidelines
The prosecutor is not requesting anything different from the guidelines
Justice here requires a more lenient sentence than the guidelines state
Prosecutor
Makes a point of the importance of the offense and argues it’s not just a mere regulatory offense as the defense argues
This is an oversimplification and selling crypto is dangerous if done outside of regulatory controls
DiMezzo operated over several months without controls
[ this is actually false in that both Aria and Ian complied with the regulations, and thus this is only a sentence for not being registered as a money transmitter, Aria did more KYC, or followed the know your customer procedures than did the banks of which were actually involved in transmitting money unlike that of Aria ]
This is more significant just not having a license
[ Aria didn’t please guilty to more than not being registered and the government is trying to bring in things that had nothing to do with Aria’s plea agreement, potentially violating the very agreement which would open the doors to her being able to back out of said plea agreement and take the case to trial ]
She kept photos of victims
[ the humorous part of this is that by following the law and performing KYC you are required to keep copies of the drivers licenses and passports which means the government is claiming that by following the law Aria broke the law as they are trying to twist KYC documents like copies of drivers licenses and signed contracts by the ‘victims’ stating that they understand that they are buying Bitcoin alongside a picture of the document and themselves, thus trying to argue these folks are victims, particularly of Aria is absurd, the victims lied to Aria when questions were asked as part of the KYC process to try and stop third party scammers from taking advantage of vulnerable folks, but when vulnerable folks partake in the scams themselves there is little a seller of crypto or a bank can do to stop it ]
Photos from Ian’s computer and Aria’s phone had some of the same photos
[ this is largely correct because the Shire Free Church had more sales than it could keep up with and thus referred smaller customers over to the Reformed Satanic Temple that Aria was selling crypto on behalf of ]
She was a conduit
[ yea, and on that logic so was the bank, but you aren’t prosecuting the bank, of which none did KYC according to your own witnesses, KYC may not work in all cases, and it did not work in a handful of cases here, but this is also out of 6,000 transactions that the FBI found 7-8 victims between 2 different organizations, that isn’t a bad track record, it’s an unbelievably impressive track record ]
“intentional local blindness”
[ intentional or willful blindness is a concept where you ignore evidence that a crime is being committed by a third party and sell to them anyway- this didn’t happen and the evidence presented during Ian’s trial actually showed that at least Ian refused to sell to an undercover FBI agent pretending to a drug dealer … but actually following the law doesn’t matter.. the scummy eastern european federal agent just got up on the stand and said, something to the effect of he may not have said he would sell to be, but he gave me a wink and a nod, now that was despite when questioned admitting no such wink and a nod occurred, nor was there any evidence of such a wink and nod occuring in a figurative manor as the undercover agent went around Ian to one of the Shire Free Churches vending machines and it wasn’t until the trial that Ian learned that the guy purchased what I believe was about $20,000 of cryptocurrency through the vending machine, this is the undercover agent never told Ian he was going to purchase Bitcoin from the vending machine, and Ian had no means of stopping him even if he had said he was going to do this… the vending machines are not Ians and they are the Shire Free Church.. even had he known what could he have done? Call up the business where the church rented space and ask them to tackle a man who looked like a big eastern european gang member? The jury completely ignored the knowing requirement in the law given Ian didn’t knowingly sell to the man ]
She made prosecutions hard… she would not find out what people were using Bitcoin for
[ this is just false in that questions were asked where red flags existed and every one of the victims at Ian’s trial was called by Ian and the so called victims testified to that… and spoken with to ensure that there were no misunderstanding or risks such as there being coercion by a third party or romance situation where the significant other had never met … and as these KYC procedures were followed the government actually has the photos and IDs of the scammers yet refuses according to the victims to go after the fraudsters despite knowing who they are .. Ian and Aria did not make it difficult for the feds to investigate… they did their job for them… ]
“don’t ever sell to anyone who tells you their business”
[ this is more or less what Aria said in a presentation on selling Bitcoin she gave… it was taken out of context as Aria and Ian did do KYC and were doing more than they were required to under the law … and in context to the presentation it’s simply that if you sell crypto to someone that is committing a crime the government will argue you have broken the law… it’s not that Ian or Aria weren’t doing KYC, but didn’t want to deal with potentially problem customers, not that they didn’t do KYC or ask any questions as would be required had they actually been obligated to do KYC in the first place which they weren’t as the law also says that businesses for profit, not churches or charitable organizations must register and do KYC, but despite that the churches did do KYC even though they did not register, thus regulatory violation is what Aria pleaded guilty to, not anything else, particularly not fraud ]
She continues to not understand the callus way she operated her business
[ we should talk about the callus way in which you are prosecuting an innocent person… but no she was no callus in the way the church raised money for charitable causes by selling crypto and took more steps to ensure people didn’t become victims of scams even though it was NOT her business what anyone did with their crypto … I don’t ask my customers what they do with their computers that are purchased from my company and it’s not that different here .. they might use them in illegal ways but I’d only be obligated to do something if I had reason to believe they were committing a crime .. Bitcoin is not money as it was defined under the law at the time this fundraising was ongoing and it wasn’t until after the FBI raid in 2021 that the federal government changed the law which still probably doesn’t include Bitcoin ]
They play an audio clip of Free Talk Live, a show Aria co-hosts where she criticizes the federal government and the agents: “Moral of story is if you want to make money and not get in trouble you need to scam people. They want the scammers to exist.”
[ they are trying to take this out of context and make it out as if Aria is advocating people scam others rather than sell crypto ? ]
She put head in sand blaming the victim
[ this is an exaggeration, but the so-called victims DID actually participate in scamming others in that at least one person during Ian’s trail testified that he would receive money from others and send it onward to the scammer and another so-called victim stated that he was told he was engaged in money laundering as one bank split up with him.. despite this he continued doing it .. unlike what Aria was doing which was ONLY selling a product and not money transmission .. and despite that doing KYC when it wasn’t required under the law as it was written at the time ]
Her background is neither plus nor minus
[ basically her childhood upbringing wasn’t great and this is what defense lawyers do at sentencing as such things are mitigating factors at sentencing .. but of course the prosecutor wants the judge to ignore it ]
This was a way to make money
It’s a business crime, a financial crime
[ that wasn’t the case and as Ian’s case demonstrated 85% of the dollars that went into church accounts according to the governments own witnesses went back into purchasing bitcoin which makes sense if you are selling bitcoin for charity… and then there was other evidence that demonstrated that the money went to charitable causes like building orphanages in Africa and local causes such as converting a house into a mosque for a minority religious community in Keene .. and at no time did the prosecutor present any evidence as to what the money was used for which is pretty important if you are going to argue that it was a business venture of some kind as that is written in the law … doing it without charging a fee as a hobby is also not within the scope of the law as written just as doing it for charity is not in the scope of the law as written ]
Virtual currencies need to be used appropriately and we need to send that message
[ this is disgusting… the idea that they get to tell you and I what we can and can’t do with our own money… but it’s even more disgusting in that they want to treat bitcoin different than how we treat cash … have you ever been asked by a bank what you are going to do with the cash you withdraw from the ATM machine? Of course not.. yet this is what they’re claiming is required under KYC despite their own witness, a credit union lady, testifying that you DO NOT have to go over every transaction with a fine tooth comb which means the banks were not even failing in their KYC obligations when they allowed victims to be victimized … KYC doesn’t work … even when you go overboard as was the case with the Crypto6 cases ]
Defense
Prosecutor acknowledged acceptance of conviction
– no fraud on aria’s part
– aria didn’t cause any losses
– aria cooperated with government and provided the government access to devices with bitcoin worth $50-60k
– she recognizes that despite lack of knowledge of scams
– she wanted the money to compensate victims
– there was no violence involved here
– there were no drugs involved here
It’s a regulatory offense that involves no fraud
No money laundering charges exist here
It’s also not beyond dispute that it is regulated or not
[ aww yea, each state government and 3 letter agency claims it is something different ]
They try to connect Ian and Aria based on IDs
If you were engaged in fraud you wouldn’t keep this information and she preserved everything
As misguided as she was about licensing she was not out to defraud anyone
The guidelines are misleading because no losses occurred
Normally they are used when someone is unjustly enriched
This is not a case with a loss or restitution
36 transactions with no prior criminal record
She grew up in a very impoverished area and courts recognize experiences in childhood are mitigating circumstances as children do not control their surroundings
She lives in a rental unit, works at dominos, and not someone who stole 3 million dollars
She is no threat to the public
The only reason to incarcerate her is as a deterrence to others
Prosecutor
$30k Aria made from selling crypto
[ no evidence of this actually exists and was pointed out it’s entirely speculative, but not relevant either way ]
Defense
She did no knowingly facilitate scammers
[ keyword in the law here is knowingly, not all laws have a knowingly component, but this one does ]
With a straw purchase (gun sales where someone buys a gun for someone else who is a criminal) the straw purchaser knows they are facilitating gang members.
[ this is is important because the prosecution brought up straw purchases in gun cases to suggest it doesn’t matter if Aria knows or not, but it does actually matter and it’s not a proper analogy as she didn’t know about ANY sale that was going to enable scammers ]
Aria makes a statement:
I did not know or think it was suspicious
It’s not Ian’s fault
In regard to clip I was not trying to help criminals
I wanted to bring down the banking system as privacy is valuable
I don’t ask the person I have cut my grass what they intend to do with payment
[ this is important because it’s dependent on how Bitcoin is defined whether or not you have to comply with money transmission laws and the regulators don’t get to decide this.. the law is unclear… but what everyone agrees on is Bitcoin is not like anything that has come before suggesting it requires legislation if it is to be defined as money… this is almost certainly one of the things that are going to be appealed as this is a matter of law and the judge ruled on it before the trial without understanding what Bitcoin was… calling the blockchain a person… and then instructing the jury it is money when it has not been clearly established under the law as such… there may be other issues here in the the law is overly broad and that might be another issue upon which an appeal can be based ]
Judge
I am going to grant a downward variance, but the sentence will include incarceration.
18 months [cage time]
I will not take into consideration a shred of evidence from the Freeman trial
It was a regulatory crime
This crime is a crime to protect the integrity of the financial system
General deterrence makes sense
[ the judge is saying here that the only reason he is putting her in a cage is to send a message and not because of what she did ]
Judge says she can self report
Defense
Lawyer chimes up and reserves right to appeal
[ Judge is curious on the basis of that appeal ]
The sentence has a procedure and substances defect
It’s out of proportion to the crime committed
The court has been influences by allegations of fraud
Judge
18 months cage time + 1 year supervised release
$100 special assessment fee
$5,000 fine, which is half of the guideline range
[ this is positive as it means she gets a downward variance on the fine and the time served ]
Aria must post $2,500 within 60 days of sentencing
Aria must self report June 17th … something about so that Aria can attend a weeding it sounded like.
Judge will put in a recommendation for a Massachusetts or Connecticut federal prison per request by the defense
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Aria’s Sentencing Hearing
Prosecutor
Aframe & Kennedy
Aria elects to continue despite lawyer’s motion to delay as a result of freemans trial
Judge talks about sentencing guidelines and not having to obey them
Defense
Objections to PSR (pre-sentcing report done by the probation department) do not directly involve freeman case and are not connected to Aria
Judge
Offense level is 19
Criminal History Level 1
This is the bottom of the scale
30-37 months is the range according to the sentencing guideline
Fine is $10-100k + $100 special assessment fee
Aria is requesting a downward variance from these guidelines
The prosecutor is not requesting anything different from the guidelines
Justice here requires a more lenient sentence than the guidelines state
Prosecutor
Makes a point of the importance of the offense and argues it’s not just a mere regulatory offense as the defense argues
This is an oversimplification and selling crypto is dangerous if done outside of regulatory controls
DiMezzo operated over several months without controls
[ this is actually false in that both Aria and Ian complied with the regulations, and thus this is only a sentence for not being registered as a money transmitter, Aria did more KYC, or followed the know your customer procedures than did the banks of which were actually involved in transmitting money unlike that of Aria ]
This is more significant just not having a license
[ Aria didn’t please guilty to more than not being registered and the government is trying to bring in things that had nothing to do with Aria’s plea agreement, potentially violating the very agreement which would open the doors to her being able to back out of said plea agreement and take the case to trial ]
She kept photos of victims
[ the humorous part of this is that by following the law and performing KYC you are required to keep copies of the drivers licenses and passports which means the government is claiming that by following the law Aria broke the law as they are trying to twist KYC documents like copies of drivers licenses and signed contracts by the ‘victims’ stating that they understand that they are buying Bitcoin alongside a picture of the document and themselves, thus trying to argue these folks are victims, particularly of Aria is absurd, the victims lied to Aria when questions were asked as part of the KYC process to try and stop third party scammers from taking advantage of vulnerable folks, but when vulnerable folks partake in the scams themselves there is little a seller of crypto or a bank can do to stop it ]
Photos from Ian’s computer and Aria’s phone had some of the same photos
[ this is largely correct because the Shire Free Church had more sales than it could keep up with and thus referred smaller customers over to the Reformed Satanic Temple that Aria was selling crypto on behalf of ]
She was a conduit
[ yea, and on that logic so was the bank, but you aren’t prosecuting the bank, of which none did KYC according to your own witnesses, KYC may not work in all cases, and it did not work in a handful of cases here, but this is also out of 6,000 transactions that the FBI found 7-8 victims between 2 different organizations, that isn’t a bad track record, it’s an unbelievably impressive track record ]
“intentional local blindness”
[ intentional or willful blindness is a concept where you ignore evidence that a crime is being committed by a third party and sell to them anyway- this didn’t happen and the evidence presented during Ian’s trial actually showed that at least Ian refused to sell to an undercover FBI agent pretending to a drug dealer … but actually following the law doesn’t matter.. the scummy eastern european federal agent just got up on the stand and said, something to the effect of he may not have said he would sell to be, but he gave me a wink and a nod, now that was despite when questioned admitting no such wink and a nod occurred, nor was there any evidence of such a wink and nod occuring in a figurative manor as the undercover agent went around Ian to one of the Shire Free Churches vending machines and it wasn’t until the trial that Ian learned that the guy purchased what I believe was about $20,000 of cryptocurrency through the vending machine, this is the undercover agent never told Ian he was going to purchase Bitcoin from the vending machine, and Ian had no means of stopping him even if he had said he was going to do this… the vending machines are not Ians and they are the Shire Free Church.. even had he known what could he have done? Call up the business where the church rented space and ask them to tackle a man who looked like a big eastern european gang member? The jury completely ignored the knowing requirement in the law given Ian didn’t knowingly sell to the man ]
She made prosecutions hard… she would not find out what people were using Bitcoin for
[ this is just false in that questions were asked where red flags existed and every one of the victims at Ian’s trial was called by Ian and the so called victims testified to that… and spoken with to ensure that there were no misunderstanding or risks such as there being coercion by a third party or romance situation where the significant other had never met … and as these KYC procedures were followed the government actually has the photos and IDs of the scammers yet refuses according to the victims to go after the fraudsters despite knowing who they are .. Ian and Aria did not make it difficult for the feds to investigate… they did their job for them… ]
“don’t ever sell to anyone who tells you their business”
[ this is more or less what Aria said in a presentation on selling Bitcoin she gave… it was taken out of context as Aria and Ian did do KYC and were doing more than they were required to under the law … and in context to the presentation it’s simply that if you sell crypto to someone that is committing a crime the government will argue you have broken the law… it’s not that Ian or Aria weren’t doing KYC, but didn’t want to deal with potentially problem customers, not that they didn’t do KYC or ask any questions as would be required had they actually been obligated to do KYC in the first place which they weren’t as the law also says that businesses for profit, not churches or charitable organizations must register and do KYC, but despite that the churches did do KYC even though they did not register, thus regulatory violation is what Aria pleaded guilty to, not anything else, particularly not fraud ]
She continues to not understand the callus way she operated her business
[ we should talk about the callus way in which you are prosecuting an innocent person… but no she was no callus in the way the church raised money for charitable causes by selling crypto and took more steps to ensure people didn’t become victims of scams even though it was NOT her business what anyone did with their crypto … I don’t ask my customers what they do with their computers that are purchased from my company and it’s not that different here .. they might use them in illegal ways but I’d only be obligated to do something if I had reason to believe they were committing a crime .. Bitcoin is not money as it was defined under the law at the time this fundraising was ongoing and it wasn’t until after the FBI raid in 2021 that the federal government changed the law which still probably doesn’t include Bitcoin ]
They play an audio clip of Free Talk Live, a show Aria co-hosts where she criticizes the federal government and the agents: “Moral of story is if you want to make money and not get in trouble you need to scam people. They want the scammers to exist.”
[ they are trying to take this out of context and make it out as if Aria is advocating people scam others rather than sell crypto ? ]
She put head in sand blaming the victim
[ this is an exaggeration, but the so-called victims DID actually participate in scamming others in that at least one person during Ian’s trail testified that he would receive money from others and send it onward to the scammer and another so-called victim stated that he was told he was engaged in money laundering as one bank split up with him.. despite this he continued doing it .. unlike what Aria was doing which was ONLY selling a product and not money transmission .. and despite that doing KYC when it wasn’t required under the law as it was written at the time ]
Her background is neither plus nor minus
[ basically her childhood upbringing wasn’t great and this is what defense lawyers do at sentencing as such things are mitigating factors at sentencing .. but of course the prosecutor wants the judge to ignore it ]
This was a way to make money
It’s a business crime, a financial crime
[ that wasn’t the case and as Ian’s case demonstrated 85% of the dollars that went into church accounts according to the governments own witnesses went back into purchasing bitcoin which makes sense if you are selling bitcoin for charity… and then there was other evidence that demonstrated that the money went to charitable causes like building orphanages in Africa and local causes such as converting a house into a mosque for a minority religious community in Keene .. and at no time did the prosecutor present any evidence as to what the money was used for which is pretty important if you are going to argue that it was a business venture of some kind as that is written in the law … doing it without charging a fee as a hobby is also not within the scope of the law as written just as doing it for charity is not in the scope of the law as written ]
Virtual currencies need to be used appropriately and we need to send that message
[ this is disgusting… the idea that they get to tell you and I what we can and can’t do with our own money… but it’s even more disgusting in that they want to treat bitcoin different than how we treat cash … have you ever been asked by a bank what you are going to do with the cash you withdraw from the ATM machine? Of course not.. yet this is what they’re claiming is required under KYC despite their own witness, a credit union lady, testifying that you DO NOT have to go over every transaction with a fine tooth comb which means the banks were not even failing in their KYC obligations when they allowed victims to be victimized … KYC doesn’t work … even when you go overboard as was the case with the Crypto6 cases ]
Defense
Prosecutor acknowledged acceptance of conviction
– no fraud on aria’s part
– aria didn’t cause any losses
– aria cooperated with government and provided the government access to devices with bitcoin worth $50-60k
– she recognizes that despite lack of knowledge of scams
– she wanted the money to compensate victims
– there was no violence involved here
– there were no drugs involved here
It’s a regulatory offense that involves no fraud
No money laundering charges exist here
It’s also not beyond dispute that it is regulated or not
[ aww yea, each state government and 3 letter agency claims it is something different ]
They try to connect Ian and Aria based on IDs
If you were engaged in fraud you wouldn’t keep this information and she preserved everything
As misguided as she was about licensing she was not out to defraud anyone
The guidelines are misleading because no losses occurred
Normally they are used when someone is unjustly enriched
This is not a case with a loss or restitution
36 transactions with no prior criminal record
She grew up in a very impoverished area and courts recognize experiences in childhood are mitigating circumstances as children do not control their surroundings
She lives in a rental unit, works at dominos, and not someone who stole 3 million dollars
She is no threat to the public
The only reason to incarcerate her is as a deterrence to others
Prosecutor
$30k Aria made from selling crypto
[ no evidence of this actually exists and was pointed out it’s entirely speculative, but not relevant either way ]
Defense
She did no knowingly facilitate scammers
[ keyword in the law here is knowingly, not all laws have a knowingly component, but this one does ]
With a straw purchase (gun sales where someone buys a gun for someone else who is a criminal) the straw purchaser knows they are facilitating gang members.
[ this is is important because the prosecution brought up straw purchases in gun cases to suggest it doesn’t matter if Aria knows or not, but it does actually matter and it’s not a proper analogy as she didn’t know about ANY sale that was going to enable scammers ]
Aria makes a statement:
I did not know or think it was suspicious
It’s not Ian’s fault
In regard to clip I was not trying to help criminals
I wanted to bring down the banking system as privacy is valuable
I don’t ask the person I have cut my grass what they intend to do with payment
[ this is important because it’s dependent on how Bitcoin is defined whether or not you have to comply with money transmission laws and the regulators don’t get to decide this.. the law is unclear… but what everyone agrees on is Bitcoin is not like anything that has come before suggesting it requires legislation if it is to be defined as money… this is almost certainly one of the things that are going to be appealed as this is a matter of law and the judge ruled on it before the trial without understanding what Bitcoin was… calling the blockchain a person… and then instructing the jury it is money when it has not been clearly established under the law as such… there may be other issues here in the the law is overly broad and that might be another issue upon which an appeal can be based ]
Judge
I am going to grant a downward variance, but the sentence will include incarceration.
18 months [cage time]
I will not take into consideration a shred of evidence from the Freeman trial
It was a regulatory crime
This crime is a crime to protect the integrity of the financial system
General deterrence makes sense
[ the judge is saying here that the only reason he is putting her in a cage is to send a message and not because of what she did ]
Judge says she can self report
Defense
Lawyer chimes up and reserves right to appeal
[ Judge is curious on the basis of that appeal ]
The sentence has a procedure and substances defect
It’s out of proportion to the crime committed
The court has been influences by allegations of fraud
Judge
18 months cage time + 1 year supervised release
$100 special assessment fee
$5,000 fine, which is half of the guideline range
[ this is positive as it means she gets a downward variance on the fine and the time served ]
Aria must post $2,500 within 60 days of sentencing
Aria must self report June 17th … something about so that Aria can attend a weeding it sounded like.
Judge will put in a recommendation for a Massachusetts or Connecticut federal prison per request by the defense
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