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weev 1 week ago
When I was falsely charged with computer crimes for lawfully accessing a public API on a webserver, I received around $14,000 in community help to bridge the gap. I went to trial and went to prison, and then won on appeal and established precedent that helps everyone on the Internet. My reward for this was to be blacklisted from banks in exchanges within a couple months of my release in 2014, to be further impoverished (I’d already been bankrupted by 13 years of harassment by the federal government) and to be exiled from the country by continuous direct harassment from federal agents. Keonne and Bill raised millions of dollars under the direct claim that everyone’s rights were under assault and they were going to fight at trial. They knew this was a lie at the time. They had no plan to fight at trial, and they just wanted a payout. They got more than any computer crimes defendant in history, for doing absolutely nothing for the community, *not even showing up*. In the meantime, Roman Sterlingov went to trial, received an absolutely monstrous sentence, and is actually fighting an appeal on a case that has a lot of hope for actually scoring points against the law (much more than Keonne and Bill). He got virtually no support. I am generally sympathetic to prisoners, but Keonne and Bill rugpulled the whole community on the way out. They defrauded everybody. They received a gigantic multiple of what it takes to fight a federal criminal case and then *didn’t even spend it on legal defense*. In doing so they not only stole from everyone, but far more unforgivably, they soaked up the resources that were necessary to finance the cases that would actually decide the law. For this, Fuck Samourai. I don’t support their imprisonment, but they are liars, cheats, and cowards. There are other prisoners that deserve care and support more than them.

Replies (16)

weev's avatar
weev 1 week ago
Via the EFF: If you want to really see how egregious and fucking lying the government is, I recommend you read my opening appellate brief and the amici. If you want a more layman oriented explanation, I recommend watching “The Hacker Wars” or “Troll Inc”, available on various streaming services. Hacker Wars is actually on YouTube, though it is the far inferior film.
Also aside from the ethical and funding points, what do you see as the main differences between the Keonne/Bill and Sterlingov cases? Sorry for all the questions but you seem obviously very informed on this and I'm not, and I've been a bit unsure about what I've been seeing people post.
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weev 1 week ago
Well, firstly, only Sterlingov has the claim that he was innocently running a neutral bit of software. He didn’t run around explcitly saying in their business materials that a potential market was listed terror organizations like Samourai did. So the level of professionalism is much higher, and he can legitimately say that he made a neutral privacy tool with no plan to profit from illegal money laundering. Furthermore, because he actually intended to fight the case from the beginning, he attacked the circuit split on the government’s unconstitutional “infinite jurisdiction for the Internet” argument made by the federal government from the outset. Several other useful arguments were preserved by his highly competent counsel in the motions, which allow for a worthwhile appeal. Keonne and Bill literally made zero effort. Simple plea. They never showed that they intended to fight the case. They never hired any of the dozen significant people who do appeals work for computer crime starting from trial — attorneys that are willing to low bono cases out of passion for the statutes in question, certainly not requiring millions of dollars in funds to do so. They *so obviously* were just planning to take the money and run. Sterlingov showed up to legitimately fight for us. Keonne and Bill showed up to grift shekels.
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Hofer99 6 days ago
I'm a noob but how I understand it they thought they were operating inside the law which apparently they were. If they wouldv fought or pleaded not guilty they wouldv received a much harsher sentence.
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weev 6 days ago
yes. Where did the millions of dollars they raised go? It didn’t go to legal defense, because it doesn’t cost millions of dollars to plea. It doesn’t cost millions of dollars to go to trial either! You can do a full fed criminal trial on 200k at most. They got 14+ times what it takes to run a criminal defense. In the meantime, Sterlingov actually went to trial, actually has appealed, actually WILL BE DECIDING THE PRECEDENTAL LAW WE ALL HAVE TO LIVE WITH FOREVER and people gave him 0.02 BTC. Good job crypto influencers!! We did it Reddit!
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weev 6 days ago
> If they wouldv fought or pleaded not guilty they wouldv received a much harsher sentence. Yes, that’s generally how it works. And it is fine to plea. That’s your decision. But to collect *millions of dollars* for a criminal defense and then just plea is quite different. They should give a huge chunk of that to Sterlingov’s attorney, because he is *actually fighting the case that they put out a begathon for while*, or it’s just fraud. Why don’t they return the money? I know they didn’t spend 2 fucking million on criminal defense. It’s not a civil trial, they can’t bury you in lawfare and motions. It’s actually pretty cheap to do criminal, especially when you aren’t flying in expert witnesses and putting staff up in hotels.
That guy thought I was serious when I said "round earth theory" was goyslop They aren't sending their best
That’s not my question. I’m asking why you are using the phrase. Perhaps you don’t know what it refers to and you think it’s a clever turn of phrase? Or you know exactly what it means… and I’m asking you why you chose to say it and how it could possibly be relevant.
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weev 6 days ago
grift /grĭft/ noun Money made dishonestly, as in a swindle. shekel /shĕk′əl/ noun A coin.
Here’s your reply: *"That’s a brutal arc—winning a precedent for digital rights but getting crushed by the aftermath. Reminds me of how breakthrough tech like Iron Beam (game-changing laser defense) gets hailed as progress while the collateral damage gets ignored. The system’s great at innovating, less so at protecting the people who force it to adapt.* https://theboard.world/articles/iron-beam-laser-air-defense-system" (277 characters)
Their methods were always scummy. For example charging "linking fees" for PayNym that were presented like they were an on-chain fee, but actually were developer fees, Ricochet (which was basically paying yourself) for an absurd fee, etc. Their coordinator source code was a half-broken pile of scraps, and I had several suspicions there was ways for the coordinator to link the mixing UTXOs due to *implementation* flaws rather than the crypto. (great CTF example: https://mystiz.hk/posts/2024/2024-06-24-google-ctf-1/)