| In SDNY Where Blockchain
Mining Sued Super Crypto Mining Now Proposed
Protective Order
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Decrypt
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Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 11 – A lawsuit
about $3 million of
cryptocurrency mining machines
was filed in November 2019 in
the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York. But when Inner City
Press on January 8 went to
attend and report on a
proceeding in the case before
SDNY Magistrate Judge Barbara
C. Moses, with the CEOs of all
three parties in the case
present, Judge Moses told
Inner City Press, "I'm going
to have to ask you to
leave."
The
complaint is public, as is the notice of the
January 8 proceeding Inner
City Press was then asked to
leave.
Then
months later amid the
Coronavirus pandemic, District
Judge Andrew L. Carter on June
17 held a telephone conference
in the case - and Inner City
Press called in, gave its name
when asked, and remained.
Judge Carter ordered the
parties to submit a joint
status letter by Friday, which
one party switched to Monday,
and the other to Tuesday.
Either way, Inner City Press
will remain on this case, as
on all things Crypto in the
SDNY.
And it goes: now in
July these parties have filed
a proposed protective order:
"ecf Blockchain Mining Supply
Services Ltd., Plaintiff,
-againstDigital Farms, Inc.
(f/k/a Super Crypto Mining,
Inc.) and DPW Holdings, Inc.,
Defendants.
18-CV-11099-ALC
STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER
HON. ANDREW L. CARTER, JR.,
United States District Judge.
The Court having found that
good cause exists for issuance
of an appropriately tailored
confidentiality order
governing the pre-trial phase
of this action, and the
parties having stipulated to
the following provisions, it
is hereby ORDERED that any
person subject to this Order –
including without limitation
the parties to this action,
their attorneys,
representatives, agents,
experts and consultants,
acting as such, all third
parties providing discovery in
this action, and all other
interested persons with actual
or constructive notice of this
Order shall adhere to the
following terms, upon pain of
contempt: Discovery Materials
May Be Designated as
Confidential 1. Any person
subject to this Order who
receives from any other person
any “Discovery Material”
(i.e., information of any kind
provided in the course of
discovery in this action) that
is designated as
“Confidential” pursuant to the
terms of this Order shall not
disclose such Confidential
Discovery Material to anyone
else except as expressly
permitted hereunder." We'll
have more on this.
The
complaint on
the PACER
computer
network states
that in March 2019
"Plaintiff
Blockchain agreed to sell, and
Defendant Super Crypto agreed
to buy, a total of 1,100
Bitman Antminer S9 model
cryptocurrency mining machines
and 1,100 power supply units
for a total purchase price of
$3,272,500."
But later
Super Crypto "made clear that
it was DPW and its CEO Milton
'Todd' Ault III who were
controlling the negotiations."
It seems that Ault was in SDNY
courtroom 20A on January 8 -
but immediately after the
notices of appearance, Judge
Moses said, "I see a gentleman
in the back, is he with either
of you?"
Inner City
Press said, I am a
reporter.
Judge Moses
said, I am going to have to
ask you to leave, this is a
confidential settlement
conference.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain
mining are matters of public
concern. Only this week, Inner
City Press attended and
reported on the telephone
conference in SDNY District
Judge P. Kevin Castel's
chambers in the civil case SEC
v. Telegram, about that
company's proposed
cryptocurrency.
The SDNY US Attorney's Office
is prosecuting (ex?)
Ethereum's Virgil Griffith for
attending a cryptocurrency
conference in North Korea, and
Mark Scott is soon to be
sentenced by SDNY District
Judge Edgardo Ramos for money
laudnering for purported
cryptocurrency
OneCoin.
So what is being discussed in
this SDNY crypto-currency
case, on which public funds
are being spent but the public
and Press are being excluded?
From the public file, all we
see are various withdrawals
and substitutions of counsel,
and the addition of Digital
Farms as a defendant. Finally
in November 2019, a year after
the case was filed, SDNY
District Judge Andrew L.
Carter signed an order
referring it to Magistrate
Judge Moses.
Outside Magistrate Judge
Moses' courtroom on January 8
was, like with Judge Carter, a
notice of the day's
proceeding. But it listed only
one at 11 am, nothing at 2:15
pm when on PACER the case was
listed as being in the
courtroom. So Inner City Press
went in - and was ordered out.
Why not list it on the notice
at the door, and then state if
"closed," and the legal basis?
We'll have more on this.
The case is Blockchain
Mining Supply and Services
Ltd v. Super Crypto Mining
Inc., et al, 18-cv-11099
(Carter / Moses).
***
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