Jury Selection Delayed in Bitcoin Exchange Trial

A federal trial tied to the now-defunct Florida bitcoin exchange Coin.mx has been delayed.

Yesterday, the court was set to begin jury selection for the trial of Yuri Lebedev – one of the co-operators of Coin.mx alongside Anthony Murgio, who plead guilty to three charges early last month – and Trevon Gross, a pastor who was accused of helping Coin.mx and its backers to take control of a New Jersey credit union in exchange for bribes. Gross was originally charged last March.

Now, according to reports, Judge Alison Nathan has delayed jury selection by a day after the prosecution introduced a new witness, who was said to have information related to Gross’s activities.

Judge Nathan ultimately opted not to allow the witness, punting jury selection to 14th February.

Lebedev, along with Murgio, was initially arrested in mid-2015, accused of running an unlicensed money transmission business in Florida. While related court filings don’t explicitly draw the connection, prosecutors have tied Coin.mx’s actions to a broader cybercriminal scheme involving a series of high-profile hacks in the last several years.

The most notable of these was a breach of Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, resulting in a data compromise for tens of millions of customer accounts. Prosecutors have also alleged that that Coin.mx functioned as a money conduit for the cybercrime scheme, using the New Jersey credit union – since shuttered by regulators – as a means to discreetly move funds.

It’s not immediately clear when the trial itself will begin. Murgio is expected to face sentencing in June.

Image via Shutterstock