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In SDNY Where Blockchain Mining Sued Super Crypto Mining Now Proposed Protective Order

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Honduras - 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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