On May 28th BitClub Network defendant Jobadiah “Joby” Sinclair Weeks filed a Motion for Appeal, Review, and Revocation of his detention order.
Weeks’ first unsuccessfully attempted to bust of custody back in January.
This was followed up by a plea to President Trump in April, citing previously rejected COVID-19 concerns. That too was denied.
Weeks’ May filing seeks to challenge the denial of his initial request for release.
The filing was sealed upon filing, and was only unsealed on June 30th.
Weeks’ fourty-eight page motion is presented as a rebuttal of the decisions that saw his release bid denied.
Issues addressed include Weeks’
- access to offshore money;
- “friendly relationship” with co-defendant Russ Medlin;
- ownership of property in Mexico;
- access to private flights;
- proposed bond conditions;
- jail conditions and
- status as a flight risk.
Access to offshore money
Weeks asserts he does “not have access to fiat currency in foreign bank accounts”.
The Emirates NBD Bank account on which the magistrate’s decision relied had been closed months before the hearing, and another account had no funds.
In fact, the funds in the Emirates account were used to purchase a prop plane housed in the U.S. that Mr. Weeks has since sold.
Weeks is a big proponent of cryptocurrency, so naturally there’s concern he’s got a ton of money stashed away.
Evidence presented by the government showed $560 million flowing through a wallet tied to Weeks.
Weeks explains this away by claiming to be “a broker for Bitfury”.
In the ordinary course of that business, Mr. Weeks would accept large transfers of cryptocurrency into his bitcoin wallet as payment for the purchase of cryptocurrency mining equipment.
Mr. Weeks would then remit the cryptocurrency, less his brokering fee, to Bitfury.
The vast majority of funds for these sales that Mr. Weeks arranged between BitClub and Bitfury went to Bitfury; Mr. Weeks did not keep that money for himself.
One example he does provide reveals he earned $5 million on a $58 million dollar sale.
The total amount Weeks earned from over half a billion dollars flowing through his bitcoin wallet is not disclosed.
Weeks also contests the dollar amount of bitcoin that passed through his wallet, based on bitcoin’s fluctuating value.
Weeks’ personal relationship with Russ Medlin
At the time of filing, co-defendant and convicted pedophile Russ Medlin was still at large.
Medlin has since been arrested but his relationship with Weeks was a major contributing factor to his continued detainment.
Weeks asserts he “does not have a friendly relationship with” Medlin.
Their relationship soured two years ago, when Medlin became angry with Mr. Weeks over delays in the build-out of a data mining center in Montana, and Mr. Weeks was cheated out of a business opportunity.
Weeks claims he hasn’t spoken to Medlin since 2018.
Access to private flights
While promoting BitClub Network, Weeks got around with private flights provided by JetSmarter.
Weeks claims he terminated his JetSmarter membership before his release motion hearing.
He also brings up the sale of his purchased turbo-prop plane.
Proposed bond conditions
To bolster his bid for release, Weeks added “additional surety and property” to his bond.
As of May 28th, Weeks’ proposed conditions of release include a $1.8 million bond.
The bond will be signed by Weeks and family members, and includes:
- the Arvada, Colorado family home;
- the Buena Vista, Colorado family log cabin;
- the Sangre de Cristo Ranch in Coaldale, Colorado; and
- a property in Clinton, Washington owned by Weeks’ uncle.
If released, Weeks will live with “close friend” Peter Gallic in New Jersey.
During his stay Weeks has consented to home detention, GPS monitoring and tracking by a third-party monitoring service.
Additional conditions Weeks has consented to include:
- surrendering his passport; and
- signing extradition waivers for Mexico and St. Kitts & Nevis; and
- offering to sign an extradition waiver “for any other country requested”.
Jail Conditions
Weeks argues conditions at the jail he’s being held in have “made it harder for him to prepare and participate in his defense”.
The jail has reduced visitation hours and prevented lawyers from talking to their clients except through glass windows and an intra-facility video screen, 20 minutes at a time.
This makes it far harder to review and analyze electronic evidence; holding a laptop up to the glass is an absurd way to review millions of pages of documents.
Weeks’ status as a flight risk
Weeks argues that COVID-19 has “radically reduced and risk of flight”.
In support of his argument Weeks cites international travel availability and “imposed mandatory quarantines”.
His family and their documented travel history is also addressed.
Past travel by Mr. Weeks and his wife with their baby does not suggest they would want to travel, especially as the pandemic rages.
Stephanie and the baby are sheltering in place with her parents. And international travel itself poses a risk of infection as it puts travelers in close quarters.
Weeks’ reduces his travel prior to being caught as
not different in kind from many other entrepreneurs who search the globe for new products, ideas, and opportunities. That activity is quintessentially American
Far be it from me to point out the obvious, but how running around the world to promote a near billion dollar Ponzi scheme is the norm escapes me.
To secure Weeks’ continued detainment, the US government claimed he has “virtually no ties to Colorado”.
Weeks argues he “family is firmly rooted in Colorado”.
That’s where Mr. Weeks grew up, went to school, and had his first job; it’s where his parents live and where he met his wife.
His parents own a house and log cabin there. He owns a ranch and two timeshares in Colorado.
Mr. Weeks has called Colorado home for over 20 years. That’s why the FBI executed a search warrant at the Weeks’ family home in Arvada, Colorado.
Weeks’ Mexican mansion was also a point of concern in the decision to keep him behind bars.
The magistrate’s decision also indulged in speculation based on Mr. Weeks’ ownership of property in Mexico: “[I]f, as the Government alleges, the Mexico mansion was a sanctuary of sorts for like-minded people, it causes the Court concern whether those are individuals who might aid Mr. Weeks.”
A “sanctuary” for “like-minded people” sounds like a polite euphemism for a cult. In reality, it’s just a vacation home for Mr. Weeks’ and his family.
For several years, he has participated in a conference in Acapulco called “Anarcopulco.” [sic]
The conference attracts libertarians from around the world, including people like former Congressman Ron Paul.
But Mr. Weeks doesn’t have legions of followers who obey his commands; he has a vacation home.
Unfounded fears do not rise to the preponderance required to defeat the presumption of release.
I had no idea what Anarchapulco was so I looked it up. Turns out Weeks used the annual event to promote BitClub Network in 2017.
Due to personal events, putting together this report took me two days. Having just now checked the case docket I see the DOJ has filed a forty-six page opposition to Weeks’ motion on July 8th.
Stay tuned for details on that filing tomorrow.