Activity tagged "law"

Posted:

Dear Judge Kaplan: I am writing to respond to your Memorandum Order of march 23, 2026, requesting me to state whether an attorney wrote either my rule 33 motion or supporting memorandum "in whole or in substantial part." (I am assuming that the inclusion of Mr. Chapsky's accompanying Affidavit was inadvertent, as I neither wrote nor purported to write that.) I conceived of the Rule 33 Motion, formulated the arguments, drafted multiple versions of it myself, and did the bulk of the legal research while I was at MDC Brooklyn and had better access to legal materials as well as a word processor. You asked about the three attorneys of record in other stages of this case; none of them had any significant input into the Rule 33 Motion. I have not discussed it with them or shared any drafts with them. Mr. Mukasey and Ms . Young only represented me in the sentencing phase, and no longer do so . While Ms. Shapiro is still representing me on my appeal, she is not representing me on this matter and I have not consulted her on it. I also shared drafts with my parents, Barbara Fried and Joe Bankman. They made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated into the motion. They also helped print it, as I no longer had access to a word processor. I also shared earlier drafts with a New York attorney who was originally hired to represent me on the Rule 33 Motion before I decided to represent myself; they had no significant input into the ultimate motion. I am the ultimate author of the documents and wrote the bulk of them myself, but can't comment on how you will ultimately interpret the standard in practice. As I have had to focus on responding to these questions rather than drafting a response to the prosecution's opposition, and because I do not believe I will get a fair hearing on this topic in front of you, I am now requesting to withdraw the Rule 33 motion, without prejudice to renewing it after my direct appeal and the related request for reassignment have been ruled upon. Finally, I am the author of this letter, but did consult with my parents about it, since it concerns both of them . Isl Sam Bankman-Fried prose 2026-04-13 Lompoc, CA

Sam Bankman-Fried’s affidavit has arrived. He says his attorneys of record had no input into his motion for a new trial, but that he shared drafts with his parents (both attorneys). “They made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated”

He also writes “As I have had to focus on responding to these questions rather than drafting a response to the prosecution's opposition, and because I do not believe I will get a fair hearing on this topic in front of you, I am now requesting to withdraw the Rule 33 motion” (for a new trial)

Published an issue of Citation Needed:

Issue 103 – The President’s Council of Podcasters

A podcasting microphone with a pop filter and shock mount, mounted on a microphone arm

Coinbase is accused of holding the cryptocurrency industry hostage over stablecoin rewards, prediction markets face an onslaught of opposition, and a Stand With Crypto poll can’t even get enthusiasm from its own activists

Published an issue of Citation Needed:

Sam Bankman-Fried’s helicopter parents crash into federal court

Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman exit the courthouse during Sam Bankman-Fried’s 2023 trial

SBF praises Trump from prison, his parents beg for a pardon on CNN, and his legal ethics professor mother files court documents claiming to be from him — prompting a judge to demand he swear under oath who wrote them.

Posted:

The Binance crypto exchange has just filed a defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its article reporting that Binance's own compliance investigators had found $1 billion in transfers to Iran-backed terror groups, and then were fired.

The article, and related investigations by the New York Times and Fortune, were cited in an inquiry over the alleged sanctions evasion by Senator Blumenthal, and a request by Sen. Van Hollen and others for an investigation by the Treasury and Justice Departments. Today the WSJ reported that the DOJ had opened such an investigation.

Binance spends much of the filing complaining that news outlets like the WSJ do not give them enough credit for how hard they're trying. I'm not sure bragging about stopping $131M in illicit transfers quite lands when the whole point of this article is that you allegedly allowed 10x that.

Posted:

I have purchased the PACER documents so everyone can read the impact statements submitted by victims of Do Kwon and the 2022 Terra/Luna meltdown. Collapses like these ruin lives.

Honorable Judge Engelmayer, My name is Stanislav Trofimchuk (Stan). My life and family were pretty much ruined by Mr. Kwon’s actions back in 2022 and I would like to share my story in writing and speak at a sentencing hearing if videoconferencing means are available as I’m unable to attend personally. Below is my story: We came to the United States in 2006 from Ukraine as a young family with a ten-month-old baby, chasing the American Dream and a brighter future for our children — both the one we had and those we still hoped to have. Like most first-generation immigrants, we had to work very hard to build a life for ourselves. For seven straight years I worked multiple jobs, endless hours, no weekends, no holidays — because my wife didn’t have a work permit during all that time. I barely saw my children grow up. She carried the burden of raising our two boys almost entirely alone, with no family nearby, no help at all. After thirteen years of struggle, we finally became U.S. citizens. For the first time I could breathe. I started a small business, came home at reasonable hours, and began repairing the years I had missed with my family. Life finally felt like it was moving forward. By early 2021 the dream was within reach: a modest house in Texas, a growing business, savings carefully set aside so our sons could go to college. After everything, we were closer than ever to “making it.”. Then, in February 2022, war exploded across Ukraine. Both my wife’s elderly mother and my parents, living in the south of the country — found themselves directly on the front line. We dropped everything. We flew to Europe, pulled them out of Ukraine, and relocated the entire family — our parents, ourselves, our children — to Croatia, one of the few places that felt safe and where we could survive on far less money than in America. In Croatia none of us had work permits. My small business in US started struggling the moment I left. I was desperate for any lifeline that could keep seven people alive. That’s when I discovered Terra, UST, and the Anchor and Mirror protocols through Do Kwon’s Twitter. He

described UST as a stablecoin that would always hold its $1 peg, and those protocols as safe, reliable way to earn 19–40% yield. It didn’t feel like gambling; it felt like the answer we had been praying for. We sold everything at discounted prices: the house, the business, the cars. We scraped together just over $190,000 — every dollar of seventeen years of sacrifice — and in late April 2022 I converted it all to UST and locked it into Anchor and Mirror, trusting the promises that had been repeated for months. Just two weeks later, on May 9, 2022, I watched UST fall off its peg. In panic, I almost sold everything to limit the damage, but then I saw Mr. Kwon’s tweet: “Deploying more capital— steady lads.”. The price started recovering that day. I trusted him again and decided to keep the UST locked. What followed were two weeks of pure terror. The Terra blockchain halted. Mirror Protocol liquidity vanished. I couldn’t withdraw a single cent. When the system finally let me out on May 23, UST was trading below $0.07. Our $190,000 had become less than $13,000. Seventeen years of our lives — gone in two weeks. People say you should never risk money you can’t afford to lose. But this never felt like risk. The founder of the project had called it “too big to fail,” boasted that the Luna Foundation Guard would protect every dollar. To a desperate father trying to feed two families in a foreign country, it sounded like the safest investment ever. The money was only the beginning of the catastrophe. Less than two weeks after the collapse, my wife packed her bags. She could no longer trust that I could keep her and her mother financially safe. A few months later the divorce papers arrived. Our teenage sons chose to stay with me and my parents, to hold what was left of the family together. College was never mentioned again. Both boys quit school and now work as car mechanics to put food on the table. Today I am [redacted]. I live in [redacted] with my elderly parents, taking whatever cash jobs I can find, waiting for a war in my home country to end. My ex-wife lives in another country, babysitting strangers’ children to survive. My sons fix cars instead of studying the engineering degrees they once dreamed of. I cannot return to the United States — there is nothing left for us there: no home, no business, no savings, no future. Everything we built over nearly two decades vanished in May 2022. I never imagined a person I had never met, never spoken to, could destroy my family so

completely. Yet that is exactly what happened. I know there are others out there whose stories are even darker than mine. I still hope that Mr. Kwon finds the conscience, the will, and the means to make restitution — so that shattered families like ours might have a chance to rebuild. Thank you for listening. Stanislav

Your Honor, In one week in 2022, Do Hyeong Kwon stole my home and my life's savings, my future retirement and hopes. These were my built-up assets made from skipping vacations and huge sacrifices over both my and my wife's careers. I am now 57 and am unlikely to ever have the opportunity to regain this money or a home. Today, I am on the verge of bankruptcy. The total amount lost was just over 1m USD. I made a mistake in my trust and belief in Do Kwon and used some of my house mortgage money to invest in his scam. After the collapse, I was forced to sell our family home. I had a belief that hard work pays off. My lifelong hard work was ripped from under my family and me due to this fraud. We no longer have a home of our own We have credit card debts accumulating We have been forced to obtain a high-interest personal loan to pay for essential medical bills. My wife cries when the credit card bills arrive I take My nights are sleepless and full of stress My daughter asks why we don't have the money to fix the car. We are on the verge of bankruptcy, which would mean I will also lose my job. Words cannot describe the devastation and hardship we continue to experience daily due to the theft committed by Do Kwon. Now we are faced with the stark reality that our hardship is likely to continue until the day we die. We have no doubt that Do Kwon will still have money hidden. We wish to see the maximum sentence imposed so that he never gains access to any of these stolen funds. We want to deter other criminals like him. Please impose the absolute MAXIMUM sentence the law allows Sincerely Daniel and Criselle Parker

to whom it may concern, my friend and i were very large luna investors based on Do's statements that the peg was restored automatically in 2021, we believed that he had a working technology and luna would have tremendous value capture as UST would be utilized in a bull or bear market i had a mid 8 figure loss in luna (yes that's correct) and my friend later jumped off a building in miami after telling his gf (its in police report) that he lost his money in crypto and was wrong this is he: https://westportlocal.com/news/kxojqtqsip3dlrr3jw7ljs5tziwdl5 failing at a new technology is part of innovation, repeated outright lies about a technology that never existed is criminal and life destroying that is all i've got for ya thanks for listening, josh

Dear Judge Engelmayer, My name is Concetto Fabrizio Di Rosa, and I am submitting this victim impact statement in connection with the sentencing of Do Hyeong Kwon. I lost approximately €40,000 as a direct result of the collapse of the Terraform ecosystem. This loss created a devastating chain of consequences for me and my family. The money I invested had been carefully saved over time to pay for my son’s planned wedding, which took place in September. When the funds disappeared, I was suddenly unable to cover those expenses. I had to borrow money from friends and relatives, causing deep personal embarrassment and significant tension within my family. The financial impact did not stop there. In desperation, I also borrowed money from my employer, hoping to recover enough to repay the loan. Because the amount was large and I was unable to meet the repayment schedule, I ultimately lost my job. Losing both my savings and my employment in such a short period created immense emotional and psychological stress. I have experienced severe anxiety, sleeplessness, and a constant sense of guilt and shame. These problems have affected my daily life and my relationships with the people I love. Even today, writing about this experience is extremely painful for me. The consequences of this financial disaster have marked my life deeply and continue to affect my family’s stability and well-being. I respectfully ask the Court to consider the profound harm caused to ordinary people like me when determining an appropriate sentence. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, Concetto Fabrizio Di Rosa

Hello, see below Victim Statement as requested. I am writing in regards to the upcoming sentencing of Do Kwon on December 11th. I have never written anything like this or as a man and a father, I hate to set myself up to be called a "victim." The truth of the matter, it was not only I that was the victim, but my family as well. And knowing the ripple effect (that will last for generations) from the choices and negligence this man and the Terraform Team made, it would be wrong of me not to add my 2 cents. So for my family's sake, I will tell how the events played out in my Household. In March of 2022, as I had a significant amount of wealth in the markets and sensed a bit of volatility coming, I decided to place a large portion of my portfolio into a stablecoin, pegged to the US Dollar. In doing research on the best most reliable stablecoin, came UST and the Terraform Labs Team as one of the frontrunners. My decision to place over $200k into UST did not come lightly or did I ever think it was a speculative decision associated with any risk. It was a calculated decision based on the words of a man that was at the forefront of innovation and a Team that had one of the largest blockchains available at the time with Luna at their backing. Again, the funds allocated to UST were not gambling or speculative, they were tucked away in a "savings" account, pegged to the dollar, to be put away for my family and my two sons' future. The collapse of UST was not just a financial loss for me, it meant the loss of a life that I was building with my family and fiance at the time. It started a chain of events that later, in June, when my Fiance left the state with my child, I knew at this point I was not only fighting for my future but also to keep my family together. As my fiance left with our 6 month old baby boy, me and my 9 year old son were left fighting to pick up the pieces. Fighting in family court, which has now gone on for years to get my son, his brother back to the state so I can be an active father and my son grows up with his brother. It has left me in a position that I had to mortgage my property to pay for attorney fees and in financial ruin from not being able to afford my bills. I went from a happy home with two boys and a happy mom to the worst torture a man can go through. Now as a man, I am not going to sit here and claim money buys happiness, but it definitely pays for the bills and provides comfort and shelter during storms. To know later that the Team, in particular Do Kwon, acted in bad faith and knew the instability of the coin was on the horizon, and possibly had a hand in the fall, and even profited off of the collapse. To take advantage of inocent familys saving s and investments should be considered as not only a financial crime, but of physical and mental nature that my family will never recover from. I lost the best years with my baby boy, my older son lost his brother. Their family's, sons/daughters, lost the chance to grow up with their cousins. As I mentioned above, the ripple effect from this crime has and will affect my family for generations. The impact of this crime will stay with me for years. I am still working to rebuild what was lost. Most importantly, I am still fighting to be present in my son’s life in the way every father should be able to.

Dear Judge Engelmayer On May 11, 2022, I invested $80,000 in LUNA coin. I received this money from the sale of my only apartment. I was moving from Russia (Moscow) to Georgia and planned to change my permanent residence. I am enclosing you with the documents confirming the sale of my only apartment. A day after my investment in LUNA coin, my sold apartment turned into several coins. Specifically, $80,000 turned into $13. I expected Do Hyun Kwon to make rational decisions after the LUNA coin's collapse. Instead, he created LUNA2, bearing no responsibility to investors in the original LUNA coin (now LUNC). Since May 2022, I have been homeless, wandering the streets of Georgia, with no money to rent a place to live. I have developed health complications and am in dire need of hospitalization, but I do not have the financial means to seek medical treatment. I am a single 58-year-old woman, unemployed, and without a pension. My family-my father, mother, and husband-passed away several years earlier. I have no children. I have no recourse. I ask for an immediate, fair decision in Do Hyeon Kwon's case and request full compensation for my financial losses, including any moral damages. I have provided, submitted, and attached all supporting documents to the portal. Since May 2022, I have been in a state of deep stress and depression, which I would not wish on anyone. I would like to testify in court, but unfortunately, I do not speak English. I can testify remotely (in Russian, if possible, with interpreters available in court). I am a tragic victim of the LUNA coin crash on May 11, 2022. My claim number is Best Regards Tatiana Dontsova, /Georgia, the city of Kobuleti/

Dear Judge Engelmayer, I am writing to inform the court of the impact Do Kwon had on my family and myself during and after the collapse of Terra. I had never invested serious money prior to Luna but after being educated on the Terra Luna ecosystem by a family member, I was completely on board with the stability and efficiency of the blockchain. I invested countless hours of my time listening to podcasts and watching videos learning how to make the most of my investments. The more time I invested the more money I invested. I invested in new protocols on the system and my days were consumed with all things Terra. I shared my knowledge with friends and family, wanting them to also be part of something great. I was convinced that I was on the ground level of something big and that I would be providing generational wealth for my family. I ended up withdrawing over 100,000 from my 401k and paying the early withdrawal penalty fees because I believed in the long term success of Terra. I never took any profits on the money I had invested. I lost everything in the collapse. When the collapse was happening I still had faith in Luna and was actually still trying to purchase more Luna. I am still in debt over the poor decisions I made during that time, due to my beliefs in the greatness of the ecosystem. The monetary loss was painful but the physical and mental anguish that followed was much worse. It took a few years to recover from the guilt, embarrassment, anxiety, and the sick to my stomach feeling I constantly had. I was very depressed. I try not to think about it anymore but knowing in the back of my head that I no longer have a retirement account can still bring back all those negative emotions. I cannot change my past decisions to invest in this cryptocurrency but I do hope that Do Kwon will realize the amount of pain and loss he caused to so many. Thank you for your time, Marie Locascio

Hi, i was a victim of Do Kwon’s terra luna scam. I am a carer for my Dad, [redacted] and i invested money into terra luna believing that it was a profitable strategy to support my Dad better with medical expenses and being able to sacrifice taking time off work to support him. When i lost all of my funds in this scam i was devastated. I had to take out loans to get by to fund my Dad’s medical bills and just to get by with food and necessities for us both. I am still in debt to this day paying back loans and credit cards. My family has been through immense suffering and i suffer from depression daily since the losses of my life savings. I urge the honourable judge to please hand down harse sentencing to Do Kwon for the crimes that he has committed, i sincerely hope that justice will prevail to recieve some sollace from the torment he has put my family and i through. Kind regards Paul Lynn

Dear Judge Engelmayer, Your Honor, I stand here today not just as a victim of financial fraud, but as a daughter whose world was irrevocably shattered. I ask you to look beyond the cold, hard numbers (i.e., the staggering sum of money that vanished) and see the human cost and lifelong agony that UST's depegging has caused. I am asking you to read these words not with professional detachment, but with the empathy I pray resides within the heart of any person witnessing such profound devastation. I remember the exact moment. It was May 2022, several days after my birthday. Suddenly, I saw a notification flash across my screen: UST had depegged from its $1 parity. In an instant, the value of everything I had worked for, everything my father had saved for, just obliterated into nothing. The shock was a physical blow. I felt my breath leave my body. Your Honor, I didn't think about my own savings at first. The first thought, the only thought, was of my father. And that is what almost drove me to end my own life. I did not consider taking my life over my own money loss, but over the catastrophic failure I brought upon my father...the man who deserved the world. He put $100k of his retirement savings into Anchor Protocol (due to my advice)...and now he is over 70 years old and he cannot fully retire. Because if he stops working, he can no longer afford to live. My father is a good man. A diligent man. For over sixty years, he worked tirelessly, building a modest nest egg for himself and my mother. He's an accountant by trade, a man of integrity, but he always yearned for more for his family. He tried to launch businesses (e.g., a laundromat franchise), but fate, or perhaps just cruel luck, always intervened. I remember when he entrusted a "friend," a supposed partner, with $50,000 for a business venture. The friend fled. Nothing came of it. My father was left to pick up the pieces, never once complaining, simply working harder. He saved for retirement through sheer, relentless willpower. The $100,000 he put into Anchor Protocol was the entirety of his life's savings. It was his hope for a comfortable end, a small reward for a life of honest, grueling labor. When he placed that money into this so-called "high-yield crypto savings," he wasn't being reckless. He was being trusting. He believed in the promise of 20% interest, a rate that could finally secure his retirement and give him peace. He believed it because I, his daughter, told him it was safe. I introduced him to Anchor Protocol. I had a few thousands in there initially. After a year of seeing it operate "smoothly," seeing the money grow, I felt safe enough to put in all of my savings. I truly believed I had found a small window of opportunity to help myself, and more importantly, to finally help my father.

My father, who had suffered a string of failed businesses, who carried the weight of a mortgage that pains him every single month. All I ever wanted, Your Honor, was to become successful enough to spoil him. To pay off his debt. To give him the happy retirement he earned and deserved. When I saw the depegging, that vision of a happy future was crushed. I felt the absolute, sickening certainty that I had failed him. I had delivered his lifelong savings into the hands of a scam. My father lost about $70,000 from his $100k savings. That number, $70,000, represents decades of his life, wiped out in the span of a single week! I wanted to crush myself into a ball, to vanish, to take away the pain I had caused him. Years later, the suffering continues. I am 35 years old now, engaged to be married, but I cannot afford the down payment on a home. I cannot afford a wedding. I cannot afford children. As much as it hurts me, I've come to terms with the fact that I can't financially support children nor own my own home. My father is continuing to freelance as an accountant. He's always fantasized about retiring in his 60s, but now that's a distant dream. And what's most miraculous, Your Honor, is that my father has never yelled at me or anything of the sort as someone who advised him about Anchor Protocol. He never blamed me for anything. He never complained. And oddly, that makes me feel even worse. He's just taking things day by day, and somehow, he still loves me ... and finds it in his heart to smile through the pain. His attitude is what kept me alive, Your Honor. If he lost $70k and he's still smiling (despite not having enough years left to recoup that money with hard work), I can lose over $30k and still be alright. Like all the other victims, I seek closure from this nightmare. I do not know exactly what that looks like. But perhaps Do Kwon's imprisonment may help bring some semblance of closure...an acknowledgment from the justice system that the harm done to families like mine was real Respectfully, Kimberly Gedeon Valley Stream, New York

Read:

“"Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here."”.

Anna Bower in Lawfare. Published October 20, 2025.

My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about the Letitia James grand jury.

Posted:

The judge has declined Justin Sun's motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Bloomberg, finding that Sun failed to establish that his case is likely to succeed on the merits or that he will suffer irreparable harm without preliminary relief.

Posted:

Bloomberg has filed their opposition to Justin Sun’s renewed motion for emergency relief, arguing they never promised not to publish the information he and his team provided to them. They also argue that his demands they remove the article about him and prevent them from publishing a second one would violate the First Amendment.

Sun cannot satisfy the requirements for emergency relief: (1) He has no likelihood of success on the merits because Bloomberg never made any promise to him inconsistent with what it published (promissory estoppel) and he has no claim for publication of truthful newsworthy information (public disclosure of private facts). (2) The pre-lawsuit publication of the information moots his irreparable harm allegations, which are in any event misleading and disproved by his own actions. (3) Any prohibition on publication, including a takedown of a report that already has been published, would irreparably harm Bloomberg’s First Amendment right to publish. (4) A prior restraint would thus disserve the public interest.

(Answering brief)

After publication, Sun asked Bloomberg to reduce his supposed ownership of TRX from 60 billion (~63% of circulating supply) to only 8 billion. Bloomberg refused. “[W]e believe Mr. Sun may not want the public to know that he controls a majority of the TRX in circulation”

(Maloney declaration)

Also: I seem to have become an exhibit

(Answering brief, exhibit 5 to Hentoff declaration)

Published an issue of Citation Needed:

Prediction markets are booming. Oversight is barely there.

A person uses their phone to place a bet on a Polymarket market on the NYC mayoral race

Prediction markets once lived on the academic fringe. Now they’re trading billions on politics, sports, and celebrity gossip — under rules never designed for retail gamblers.

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Justin Sun has hired Baker & Hostetler lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén to represent him in his lawsuit against Bloomberg. Goody Guillén has previously represented the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, and she has lobbied for a presidential pardon for Binance’s Changpeng Zhao.

From an August issue of my newsletter:

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is still hard at work trying to secure a pardon for his 2023 money laundering conviction [I79, 83]. Zhao has personally spent $30,000 in the last few months on lobbying the president for “executive relief”, hiring BakerHostetler partner Teresa Goody Guillén (a former SEC lawyer from 2009–2011).31 Since March 24, Binance has also spent another $190,000 on Goody Guillén’s and other BakerHostetler lobbyists’ services to lobby Congress, the SEC, and the CFTC on “financial services policy issues relating to digital assets and cryptocurrency”.32 Goody Guillén simultaneously represents the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial project; she wrote the brief May retort from the company in response to Senator Blumenthal’s questions about Trump’s conflicts of interest [I83, 84].33

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