Lawyers for former Monero developer Riccardo Spagni explain arrest for failure to appear in court

The detention of former Monero lead developer Riccardo ‘Fluffypony’ Spagni is unfounded. This assessment was made by his attorney Duncan Ouks.

Riccardo Spagni @fluffypony South African counsel legal statement:https://t.co/NvLA2aOMH8 pic.twitter.com/VEXNx2JLf9

— Saskia Spagni (@Spatzipantz) August 3, 2021

In a press statement, Spagni was said to have mistakenly believed, due to a number of administrative oversights and a misunderstanding, that the presence of his representative at the Cape Cookies case in 2009-2011 was sufficient.

The company accused the former Monero developer of fraud totalling $100,000, which became the reason for his arrest in the United States.

According to Ouks, Spagni was working in the United States at the time, and the session was devoted to discussing new dates for the proceedings. The attorney noted that, in line with practice, lawyers substitute for defendants in such cases.

Despite the presence of Spagni’s attorney at the hearing, the court issued an ‘unfounded’ arrest warrant. The lawyer stressed that the process had not yet reached the hearing stage. It typically takes ‘several months’ to get there, he added.

The hearing in Spagni’s case is scheduled for August 5. If convicted on the charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Spagni stepped back from active involvement in Monero in 2019, but remains the unofficial public face of Monero.

In October last year, Spagni said that regulators’ track transactions on the Monero network were doomed to fail.

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