On Sunday morning, crypto-currency website CryptoCoinsNews.com published a report [link] suggesting that Charlie Shrem had been banned from attending the Bitcoin in the Beltway conference this weekend by the U.S. Government. That information, according to the article’s author, came from the event’s organizer:
According to Bitcoin in the Beltway organizer and Sean’s Outpost founder Jason King, the government had given Charlie Shrem clearance to attend and speak at Bitcoin in the Beltway but had revoked permission at the last minute.
No surprise, the story made it to the bitcoin community’s own Reddit page in short order, prompting confusion and outrage.
NEWSBTC promptly reached out to Shrem to verify the authenticity of the story, and was pointed to his own comment on Reddit on the matter. It reads:
Title is VERY misleading. I wasn’t banned from this or any conference. There’s a story behind what happened but legal has advised not to comment on the specifics.
Shrem condemned the publisher of the story, which has been no stranger to controversy since its inception in 2013.
I’m kind of disappointed [CryptoCoinsNews] didn’t reach out to me, or my lawyers, to confirm/deny the story. I thought they were moving away from speculative tabloid into being a real news source.
He has declined to elaborate further on the matter.
Shrem is in the midst of relatively serious legal trouble, having been arrested (along with one other) earlier this year on suspicion of laundering on the count of about one million dollars in relation to the now-defunct (yet, reincarnated under new management, so to speak) Silk Road — a marketplace allowing consumers to purchase illicit goods using digital currency like bitcoin.
A trial date for Mr. Shrem has been set for the 22nd of September by a Judge in a Manhattan court.