Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of the Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency, was arrested last month in Nashville, Tennessee on fraud charges tied to alleged offenses in South Africa between 2009 and 2022.

Spagni was on board a private jet scheduled to fly to Los Cabos, Mexico when he was apprehended in Nashville during a scheduled refueling stop, co-ordinate to court documents. His journey originally began but outside of New York City. The courtroom documents state he is currently in the custody of the U.Due south. Attorney General.

The arrest was made at the request of the South African regime, which is seeking Spagni's extradition on fraud charges. The charges, which are unrelated to Spagni's function at Monero, are tied to his previous employment as an information technology manager at a visitor called Cape Cookies. Regarding Spagni's alleged misdeeds, the court documents read:

"As an employee of Greatcoat Cookies, SPAGNI intercepted invoices from some other company, Ensync, relating to information technology goods and services it had supplied Cape Cookies. SPAGNI knowingly used false data to fabricate similar invoices purporting to exist from Ensync, relying on details including this company's Value Added Tax (VAT) number and bank business relationship information. SPAGNI then inflated the prices for the goods and/or services."

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The Government of South Africa alleges that the invoices did not incorporate the existent bank account of Ensync, only rather a banking company account opened and controlled entirely by Spagni.

In the court filing, Acting Us Attorney Mary Jane Stewart requested that the court deny whatsoever bail requests by Spagni "pending resolution of this extradition proceeding." The document describes Spagni as a flight run a risk with a strong motivation to flee to avoid facing charges. He's believed to accept "significant crypto-avails" as well every bit a spotter valued at $800,000.

Spagni at present faces a hearing on Aug. five to determine whether he is held pending trial. If convicted in South Africa, Spagni could face upwardly to twenty years in prison.

Spagni has been involved in the cryptocurrency market since at to the lowest degree 2022 and is active on Twitter under the handle @FluffyPony. He has not tweeted since the abort on July 20, 2022. In December 2022, he stepped down as pb maintainer of Monero.