A US court denied bail to former lead Monero developer Riccardo ‘Fluffypony’ Spagni due to flight risk. According to News24.
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According to the publication, the court accepted the prosecutor’s arguments that Spagni possesses cryptocurrencies that could enable flight. The developer reportedly did not present evidence of the absence of such risk.
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On July 21, U.S. authorities arrested Spagni at Nashville airport at the request of South African authorities, who charged him with fraud of $100,000. The case is not related to Monero, but to his work at Cape Cookies in 2009–2011.
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Under the charges, Spagni faces up to 20 years in prison. South Africa may submit documents to the United States for the extradition review of the developer by September 19, 2021.
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Spagni said he was detained “for contempt of court” and attributed the incident to “a misunderstanding of an old case”.
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The lawyer Duncan Ouks, representing the developer, described as the detention as unfounded. He said Spagni wrongly believed that in the Cape Cookies case the presence of his representative was sufficient.
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Spagni stepped back from active involvement in Monero development in 2019, but remains its unofficial figurehead. The developer was at the very origins of the project, though he was not its co-creator.
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