The charges are unrelated to Spagni’s role at Monero. Rather, they date back to 2009, when Spagni was involved with a South African company know

Monero’s Riccardo Spagni Arrested on Fraud Charges

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2021-08-03 03:30:10

The charges are unrelated to Spagni’s role at Monero. Rather, they date back to 2009, when Spagni was involved with a South African company known as Cape Cookies.

Spagni allegedly obtained invoices and other data from another company, Ensync, then created similar fraudulent documents in order to redirect payments to an account that he controlled. He also inflated prices for Cape Cookies’ own goods.

Those documents also state that Spagni “is believed to have significant cryptocurrency assets that would enable him to flee,” estimating his current holdings at $800,000.

Spagni was arrested last month at a refueling stop in Nashville during a flight between New York and Los Cabos, Mexico. He was taken in by U.S. authorities at the request of the government of South Africa.

Spagni was the lead maintainer on Monero until he left the position in December 2019. He has nevertheless remained heavily involved in Monero’s development and publicity since then.