Eight counts of tax evasion and running an illegal money transmission business are brought against Freeman.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: CONCORD Federal prosecutors allege that from 2016 until their arrests in 2021, libertarian activist and early bitcoin pioneer Ian Freeman and a number of his associates assisted scammers and other criminals in using bitcoin to launder more than $10 million through a network of bitcoin vending machines and actual and virtual cash-for-bitcoin exchanges.

This week, Freeman will go on trial in New Hampshire on federal allegations of tax evasion and running an unauthorised money-transfer company.

In a raid in March 2021, Freeman and a group of his colleagues, collectively known as the "Crypto 6," were detained.
Four members of the Crypto 6 have entered into plea agreements, including Freeman's fellow radio DJ Aria DiMezzo, his ex-girlfriend Renee Spinella and her husband Andrew Spinella, and Nobody (formerly Richard Paul). Although DiMezzo's sentencing isn't scheduled until later this month, the other three defendants were spared jail time with relatively light punishments. All allegations brought against Colleen Fordham were withdrawn.

The host of the Free Talk Live radio programme and a former participant in the libertarian migration organisation, the Free State Project, Freeman has maintained his innocence and called the accusations against him politically motivated and the trial a "sham."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched Freeman's home in the middle of the night around a year and a half before to the start of his trial (FBI).

Gun-toting agents encircled the Keene, New Hampshire residence in March 2021 before using an armoured vehicle to smash through a first-floor window. They took items from the home, including $180,000 in cash, precious metal coins and bars, and two actual Casascius bitcoins for a total of 101 bitcoins. Agents also seized a number of Freeman's bitcoin vending machines from eateries and other neighbourhood establishments.

Prosecutors informed the New Hampshire jury during their opening remarks on Tuesday that Freeman was the head of the illicit crypto selling operation.

They claimed that Freeman started out by setting up a number of bitcoin kiosks across the state of New Hampshire (which have been described as different from bitcoin ATMs due to their local wallets), and that he later diversified into advertising for actual and virtual cash-for-bitcoin exchanges on websites like localbitcoins.com.
Prosecutors told the jury that although Freeman didn't ask his clients many questions, he did charge a premium (often between 10-15%) for their anonymity.

Freeman's "golden rule" of assuring his customers that "what you do with your bitcoin is your business" and not giving him extra money was described by Assistant US Attorney Georgiana MacDonald.
According to MacDonald, Freeman's bank accounts were frequently closed, which is why he approached his friends and coworkers for assistance. He requested others to open bank accounts for him, sometimes in their own names but occasionally by establishing religious organisations.

According to the prosecution, DiMezzo registered an account for the Reformed Satanic Church and Nobody opened one for the fictitious Church of the Invisible Hand. DiMezzo, a 2020 Republican candidate for sheriff of Cheshire County, defined herself as a "transsexual Satanist anarchist."

The Shire Free Church, which owns Free Talk Radio, is one of many churches involved in Freeman's operation, and according to MacDonald, they are "nothing more than letterhead" for Freeman's business.
Customers of Freeman's virtual cash-for-bitcoins business were allegedly instructed to send money to one of the bank accounts linked to the Crypto 6 using descriptions like "purchase of rare coins" or to avoid drawing the attention of the banks. Prosecutors claim that these customers include con artists preying on the elderly with romance scams or "Nigerian prince" scams.

Defense responds

During his opening remarks on Tuesday, Freeman's attorney Mark Sisti told the jury that what they had heard from MacDonald was "total rubbish" and charged the prosecution with purposefully omitting information that would have weakened their case against Freeman.
Sisti told the jurors, "Just because the federal government and an assistant US attorney say something doesn't mean it's true. It is not credible just because it is an FBI probe.

Sisti characterised Freeman as a kind, non-violent man who assisted con artists rather than being con artists himself and even assisted with crypto-related investigations. Sisti contended that the churches accused of being involved in his scheme were legitimate organisations that had helped local businesses in New Hampshire set up bitcoin payment systems and established an orphanage in Uganda.

Sisti claimed that Freeman conducted his business openly and kept digital records of all of his dealings, including images of his clients' licences.

Why would you save your [licences and photos] if you were a con artist? As soon as you could, you'd throw that rubbish in the trash," Sisti told the jury. There is no sense in it.

According to Sisti, Freeman frequently turned down shady clients, such as an undercover agent posing as a heroin dealer. Sisti claimed that the agent, despite Freeman telling him he wouldn't conduct business with him in person as he had requested, put $20,000 in one of the bitcoin kiosks owned by the latter.

Before this moron put $20,000 in a vending machine, without Freeman's consent, "[MacDonald] informed you he said no," Sisti stated. What should he do, station a guard with a gun in front of his vending machine?

Sisti disputed MacDonald's claims that Freeman ignored "red flags" in his clients and shied away from interacting with con artists. He brought up the story of one prospective witness, a 76-year-old woman who transferred her whole life savings, or $755,000, over the course of six days to a romance scammer. The scammer allegedly exchanged the money for bitcoins using Freeman, who charged a 10% fee, and then allegedly did so.

Sisti questioned aloud before the jury, "What bank did the "little old lady" use, that was "so strictly regulated," yet missed the traditional red flags of her withdrawing significant sums of money in less than a week.

Sisti demanded, "Show me that bank president." Because he ought to be seated next to me rather than Freeman,

The tax matter

Freeman is accused of operating an unregistered money transmission business, two counts of money laundering (one involving the entirety of his firm and the other including the alleged sale of bitcoin to an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer), and four counts of tax evasion.

Ian Freeman simply dislikes paying taxes, MacDonald remarked.
Freeman most likely concurred with what she said. Freeman admitted to New York Magazine last year that he hasn't paid federal income tax since 2004 despite the fact that the charges against him only relate to attempts to avoid taxes from 2016 to 2019.
It's not just him. Libertarians typically reject federal taxes, and for many, the saying "taxation is theft" has taken significant political significance.

A trial spectator identified only as "Bear" told CoinDesk outside the Concord courthouse that he does not pay federal income taxes and believes that only government employees are subject to taxes based on the wording of the Constitution. "You know, like the right to bear arms?" he said.

In libertarian circles, the topic of how to avoid paying taxes is frequently brought up, and bitcoin - at least in its early days, before the emergence of sophisticated blockchain analytics and high-profile crypto criminal prosecutions - was promoted as a potential answer.

The libertarian use-case for cryptocurrencies served as inspiration for several prominent players in the industry, including Vitalik Buterin, the developer of Ethereum, and Erik Voorhees, the founder of ShapeShift. However, things have changed.

The sector has changed as a result of attracting the attention of both traditional investors and authorities as it has developed and matured. The "new" crypto market is (at least outwardly) controlled and polished, and many influential figures, like Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, collaborate closely with the American government.
Freeman and many like him feel like vestiges of bitcoin's crypto-anarchist past since using bitcoin as money is becoming less widespread, as is purposefully creating conflicts with authorities.
Bitcoin libertarians

Crypto libertarians like Freeman are still active, even if the current version of the sector has mostly ignored them. This is especially true in libertarian hotbeds like Keene, where Free Talk Radio is based.

On the first day of Freeman's trial, a large crowd flocked to Concord to offer their support. After lunch, a room had to be set up to accommodate attendees because there were so many observers wearing bitcoin t-shirts on the courtroom benches.
One security guard said to CoinDesk, referring to the quantity of people present, "I've never seen the courtroom like that."

Crypto libertarians
Crypto libertarians like Freeman are still active, even if the current version of the sector has mostly ignored them. This is especially true in libertarian hotbeds like Keene, where Free Talk Radio is based.
On the first day of Freeman's trial, a large crowd flocked to Concord to offer their support. After lunch, a room had to be put up to accommodate guests since there were so many observers wearing bitcoin t-shirts on the courthouse benches.

One security guard said to CoinDesk, referring to the quantity of people there, "I've never seen the courthouse like that."
Also assembled in front of the courthouse were protesters. One man told CoinDesk that he had paid a quarter of a bitcoin to have a seamstress construct him a special bitcoin mascot outfit for the impending trial when the Crypto 6 were apprehended in 2021. He said that in order to attend the trial, he and his husband drove 29 hours from Denver, Colorado.