Remember Safemoon? Feds Aren’t Forgetting About It, Despite DOJ Crypto Policy Shift
The post Remember Safemoon? Feds Aren’t Forgetting About It, Despite DOJ Crypto Policy Shift appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
In brief DOJ prosecutors are moving forward with the Safemoon case, despite the widely circulated “crypto memo” earlier this month. DOJ attorneys say proceeding to trial remains consistent with current policy. Safemoon founders are charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The Department of Justice told a federal judge it plans to proceed with a securities fraud case against the founders of cryptocurrency Safemoon, despite an agency memo circulated earlier this month instructing federal prosecutors to avoid pursuing cases that would involve determining the securities status of crypto assets. In a letter sent Friday to the Brooklyn federal judge overseeing the case, DOJ attorneys said they had conducted an “internal review” of whether the department’s new crypto policies might implicate the Safemoon case, and concluded it should “proceed to trial on all counts.” In early April, the DOJ shuttered its crypto-focused enforcement team and instructed its attorneys to wind down criminal crypto cases in several key areas. One such area: any cases that “would require the Justice Department to litigate whether a digital asset is a ‘security’ or a ‘commodity.’” In late 2023, federal prosecutors arrested Safemoon’s founders and charged them with securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The indictment alleged that the founders told holders of their cryptocurrency, which trades as SFM, that the token’s liquidity was locked, when in reality the defendants “fraudulently diverted and misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth of purportedly ‘locked’ SFM liquidity for their personal benefit.” On Friday, the judge overseeing the Safemoon case, Eric Komitee, also denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that SFM is not a security. Komitee ruled this objection was premature, and that it was not his role to weigh in on SFM’s security status. “SFM’s status as a security (or not) should…
Filed under: News - @ April 23, 2025 2:27 am