An arrest warrant for Riccardo Spagni was issued on July 20, 2021, at the request of the South African government. He was apprehended the same day in

Monero’s former maintainer arrested in the US for allegations unrelated to cryptocurrency

submited by

Style Pass

2021-08-02 19:00:06

An arrest warrant for Riccardo Spagni was issued on July 20, 2021, at the request of the South African government. He was apprehended the same day in the United States.

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 2011.

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, according to court documents. His journey originally began just outside of New York City. He is currently in the custody of the U.S. Attorney General, according to court documents.

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

The Government of South Africa alleges that the invoices did not contain the real bank account of Ensync, but rather a bank account opened and controlled entirely by Spagni.