Here’s an update to the ongoing situation involving Mr. Charlie Shrem, ex-Bitcoin Foundation Vice Chairman and CEO of BitInstant.
Reports indicate that Shrem has formally pleaded not guilty on charges of laundering over $1 million in connection with Silk Road.
Specifically, prosecutors allege that Shrem willingly sold the bitcoins to users who were planning on spending them on the illicit drug marketplace, which was shut down late last year (another version of the Silk Road marketplace was set up about a month later).
The plea was entered through Shrem’s legal counsel on Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court.
The judge has set a trial date of September 22nd for Shrem’s case.
Shrem was arrested earlier this year at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City following an appearance at a bitcoin-related event in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Robert Fiaella, who prosecutors peg as an accomplice, was also arrested at about the same time.
If convicted of the laundering charges (which are the most serious in his particular case), he could spend a maximum of twenty years in prison.
Speaking at a rare in-person appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival during the screening of The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, Shrem told a crowd of moviegoers that his legal team has found “a lot of mistakes and holes” in the case against him.
Shrem is currently under house arrest at the home of his mother in Brooklyn, New York.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source[/textmarker] Bloomberg
