Wonderful news!
The rumors are true and I can finally talk about it: The DOJ has dismissed its case against me and my name has been cleared.
This is an amazing result for me, for my family, for my team, and for DeSo. There is no limit to what we can achieve from here.
At some point, I'll share my full story. But for now, I just want to clarify a few important points since I can now speak openly.
1. My innocence withstood intense scrutiny. The government meticulously combed through my private texts, my private emails, and even private documents I'd written looking for any shred of wrongdoing. They went to people I'd done business with and essentially pressured them to say bad things about me (which nobody did, not even people I'd let go in the past). The process was extremely adversarial. They weren't looking for a reason to clear me, they were looking for a reason to convict me, and any reason would have worked as long as they thought it would convince a jury.
After months of searching, using every method and tool at their disposal, including applying pressure to those around me, the government decided to dismiss their charges.
It's hard to understate how rare a dismissal like this is. After going through this process myself and seeing what the government is capable of, I believe it's highly unlikely that anyone who has ever done anything wrong, or even anything that "feels" wrong, would ever survive the government's scrutiny without being convicted.
I truly believe it only happened in my case because I've always gone above and beyond to do right by everyone I've ever done business with, and because I truly believe in my heart that what we're doing with DeSo is important for the world (and this came out in all my private communications).
2. There was no victim. In their complaint, the government claimed that a conversation they had with "Investor-1" led them to believe that I had defrauded this investor. Many things were incorrect about this claim after it was scrutinized:
1) I never lied about anything. In fact, I was beyond transparent at all times, and I'm confident that Investor-1 would agree
2) Investor-1 was and still is up on their purchase, even after the government's FUD tanked the price by over 70%
3) I am confident that Investor-1 does not consider themselves to be a victim.
Not only that, but Investor-1 has never been anything less than an amazing partner to me all throughout my career for almost a decade now. When I saw them mentioned in the complaint I immediately suspected that the government had compelled their testimony, and was either misunderstanding or misrepresenting an innocent conversation to reach the conclusion they wanted to reach.
I believe that if you asked Investor-1, the only entity they'd consider themselves a victim of is the US government for wasting so much of their time, and for costing them more in legal fees than the amount allegedly lost to fraud (which to be clear was zero because they are still up on their original purchase of tokens).
In summary: I believe the case that was brought against me consisted of a no-loss non-fraud against an alleged victim who doesn't even consider anything negative to have occurred, other than the actions of the government itself.
3) DeSo is fully-decentralized. Perhaps the allegation that hurt the most was the government's claim that BitClout/DeSo, the blockchain that I've been working on for years now, is not fully-decentralized. They did this by pulling a text message I sent out of context. In the message, I said something like "even something that is fake decentralized would probably still not be a security." Right *after* that message I clarified that BitClout/DeSo is *actually* decentralized, and thus has virtually no securities risk as a result. Unfortunately, the government didn't include that context in their complaint, which in my opinion is an act of bad faith on the government's part.
For the avoidance of doubt, I will say on the record right here and now that BitClout/DeSo has been fully-decentralized from approximately late 2020. To say I thought anything else would not only be wrong, it would contradict actual hard fact.
4) This was some hard stuff. A lot of things about what I went through were hard. One day I will tell the whole story and I think it will be quite interesting for people to hear-- but not today.
I don't want to come off as arrogant or hyperbolic, but I feel I have to give my honest assessment and say that I'm pretty sure something like this would have broken most people. There is something "life or death" about a crisis like this that I feel few working in traditional companies have ever really dealt with, even at the highest levels. At minimum, it would break their team and make it hard to continue to operate normally...
This being said, I'm proud to say that our team remained solidly intact, and we even successfully launched two major products through all the noise: Openfund and Focus (which you should try, by the way), as well as a major network upgrade to Proof of Stake.
I always knew that I hadn't done anything wrong and that it would all get resolved. But everyone around me did as well, including my team. That belief, combined with the absolutely heroic support of my friends and family, made it manageable without too much stress. And of course, it doesn't hurt that I believe DeSo is one of the most important things I can be doing for the world, and worth fighting to the death for.
Lastly, I have to mention that if it weren't for all of the efforts of others in our industry, especially @brian_armstrong and his work with Coinbase, I'm not sure crypto would be where it is today, and I'm not sure we would have gotten such a swift dismissal of my case.
===
In the short-term, I've got big plans for DeSo, Focus, Openfund, and HeroSwap (my team's core products). Every single one is best-in-class at what it does and a potential billion-dollar business on its own. Now that I'm able to operate at full capacity, free from stifling constraints, and with my reputation and network restored, I'm confident we'll realize that potential.
Now, let's get back to work.
The rumors are true and I can finally talk about it: The DOJ has dismissed its case against me and my name has been cleared.
This is an amazing result for me, for my family, for my team, and for DeSo. There is no limit to what we can achieve from here.
At some point, I'll share my full story. But for now, I just want to clarify a few important points since I can now speak openly.
1. My innocence withstood intense scrutiny. The government meticulously combed through my private texts, my private emails, and even private documents I'd written looking for any shred of wrongdoing. They went to people I'd done business with and essentially pressured them to say bad things about me (which nobody did, not even people I'd let go in the past). The process was extremely adversarial. They weren't looking for a reason to clear me, they were looking for a reason to convict me, and any reason would have worked as long as they thought it would convince a jury.
After months of searching, using every method and tool at their disposal, including applying pressure to those around me, the government decided to dismiss their charges.
It's hard to understate how rare a dismissal like this is. After going through this process myself and seeing what the government is capable of, I believe it's highly unlikely that anyone who has ever done anything wrong, or even anything that "feels" wrong, would ever survive the government's scrutiny without being convicted.
I truly believe it only happened in my case because I've always gone above and beyond to do right by everyone I've ever done business with, and because I truly believe in my heart that what we're doing with DeSo is important for the world (and this came out in all my private communications).
2. There was no victim. In their complaint, the government claimed that a conversation they had with "Investor-1" led them to believe that I had defrauded this investor. Many things were incorrect about this claim after it was scrutinized:
1) I never lied about anything. In fact, I was beyond transparent at all times, and I'm confident that Investor-1 would agree
2) Investor-1 was and still is up on their purchase, even after the government's FUD tanked the price by over 70%
3) I am confident that Investor-1 does not consider themselves to be a victim.
Not only that, but Investor-1 has never been anything less than an amazing partner to me all throughout my career for almost a decade now. When I saw them mentioned in the complaint I immediately suspected that the government had compelled their testimony, and was either misunderstanding or misrepresenting an innocent conversation to reach the conclusion they wanted to reach.
I believe that if you asked Investor-1, the only entity they'd consider themselves a victim of is the US government for wasting so much of their time, and for costing them more in legal fees than the amount allegedly lost to fraud (which to be clear was zero because they are still up on their original purchase of tokens).
In summary: I believe the case that was brought against me consisted of a no-loss non-fraud against an alleged victim who doesn't even consider anything negative to have occurred, other than the actions of the government itself.
3) DeSo is fully-decentralized. Perhaps the allegation that hurt the most was the government's claim that BitClout/DeSo, the blockchain that I've been working on for years now, is not fully-decentralized. They did this by pulling a text message I sent out of context. In the message, I said something like "even something that is fake decentralized would probably still not be a security." Right *after* that message I clarified that BitClout/DeSo is *actually* decentralized, and thus has virtually no securities risk as a result. Unfortunately, the government didn't include that context in their complaint, which in my opinion is an act of bad faith on the government's part.
For the avoidance of doubt, I will say on the record right here and now that BitClout/DeSo has been fully-decentralized from approximately late 2020. To say I thought anything else would not only be wrong, it would contradict actual hard fact.
4) This was some hard stuff. A lot of things about what I went through were hard. One day I will tell the whole story and I think it will be quite interesting for people to hear-- but not today.
I don't want to come off as arrogant or hyperbolic, but I feel I have to give my honest assessment and say that I'm pretty sure something like this would have broken most people. There is something "life or death" about a crisis like this that I feel few working in traditional companies have ever really dealt with, even at the highest levels. At minimum, it would break their team and make it hard to continue to operate normally...
This being said, I'm proud to say that our team remained solidly intact, and we even successfully launched two major products through all the noise: Openfund and Focus (which you should try, by the way), as well as a major network upgrade to Proof of Stake.
I always knew that I hadn't done anything wrong and that it would all get resolved. But everyone around me did as well, including my team. That belief, combined with the absolutely heroic support of my friends and family, made it manageable without too much stress. And of course, it doesn't hurt that I believe DeSo is one of the most important things I can be doing for the world, and worth fighting to the death for.
Lastly, I have to mention that if it weren't for all of the efforts of others in our industry, especially @brian_armstrong and his work with Coinbase, I'm not sure crypto would be where it is today, and I'm not sure we would have gotten such a swift dismissal of my case.
===
In the short-term, I've got big plans for DeSo, Focus, Openfund, and HeroSwap (my team's core products). Every single one is best-in-class at what it does and a potential billion-dollar business on its own. Now that I'm able to operate at full capacity, free from stifling constraints, and with my reputation and network restored, I'm confident we'll realize that potential.
Now, let's get back to work.
No sponsor has contacted us so far. Will you keep the tradition alive?
❤️ Q2 POST2EARN SPONSOR needed ❤️
Many recently claimed that #post2earn is vital for user onboarding & retention. We agree, having run campaigns for 158 consecutive weeks.
What's in it for you as a sponsor:
✅ Build tons of goodwill with the DeSo community
✅ Weekly mentions of your profile name
✅ A banner on our website
✅ Tiny brand quotes in our post/comment dialogue box
✅ Sponsor ranking on our @Post2Earn website
✅ Web2 mentions on X
✅ Build a relationship with an OG DEV team on DeSo
We'd like to thank our past sponsors: @Seelz @WeAreAllDeso @imoliver @The_Devil @NFTz @Pixelangelo @Exotica_S @MusicHeals @DeSocialWorldValidator @TheDC @BSCoin @Miniyo @DeSocialWorld
It's hard to stay optimistic seeing $Focus $Openfund and $DESO tank after the Focus app launched.
We are not gonna make an effort to convince you why think the fundamentals are still great, the asymmetric investment opportunity is still there and more.
We just want to acknowledge the feeling you may have, and thank you for your dedication if you are among the ones sticking around. 🙏
To those who celebrate
Eid Mubarak!