Representations of Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies on a display screen exhibiting binary codes are seen by a magnifying glass on this illustration image taken September 27, 2021. REUTERS/Florence Lo
(Reuters) – A former prosecutor in Manhattan who charged John McAfee with cryptocurrency fraud has joined Cahill Gordon & Reindel, the place he hopes to construct a crypto protection follow.
Samson Enzer began on the “floor ground” of cryptocurrency enforcement by prosecuting a few of the earliest circumstances introduced by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, he stated in an interview on Monday.
The case prosecutors introduced in March alleging McAfee and an affiliate used Twitter to interact in a cryptocurrency pump-and-dump got here collectively partly due to the pandemic, Enzer stated.
“Out of the blue, the whole lot stopped. There have been no extra courtroom deadlines,” he stated. “I had time to simply learn paperwork that we had collected.”
Whereas the case had “a tragic ending” with McAfee’s June 2021 dying in Spanish custody whereas awaiting extradition, Enzer stated it was “innovative” and marked the primary time that touting an preliminary coin providing with out disclosing compensation was charged as against the law.
McAfee’s alleged co-conspirator has pleaded not responsible to the costs and faces parallel civil lawsuits by the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee and Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee.
As counsel at Cahill Gordon in New York, Enzer hopes to make use of his expertise to advise each entrepreneurs and monetary establishments, he stated.
Enzer stated he plans to construct a crypto-related protection follow on the agency, which has established white collar and monetary companies practices.
Herbert Washer, who chairs Cahill’s litigation division, known as Enzer an “distinctive addition” to the agency in a press release on Monday.
A born-and-raised Manhattanite who earned his legislation diploma on the College of Pennsylvania Legislation Faculty, Enzer practiced at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison earlier than occurring to spend eight years as a prosecutor.
For the final three years, he prosecuted monetary crime, together with cryptocurrency schemes, as a member of the securities and commodities fraud job drive.
In 2018, Enzer and colleagues charged the three founders of Centra Tech Inc, an organization that claimed to have developed a cryptocurrency debit card.
It was the primary preliminary coin providing case to be charged as securities fraud within the Southern District of New York, and concerned cooperation with the SEC’s newly created cyber unit, he stated.
“I obtained to be a part of the discussions the place we had been actually breaking the bottom on how to consider these points,” Enzer stated.
All three males pleaded responsible, and two have been sentenced to jail. The third awaits sentencing.
