About the Case
Mike’s case goes all the way back to 2015, when the SEC began targeting him.
Over the next 9-years, multiple government agencies in Washington D.C. systematically tore Mike’s companies and life apart, through witch hunt investigations, subpoenas, threats, and an eventual indictment and prison sentence.
Long History with the SEC
2015 - 2019
Hedgeable (Mike’s first startup) created the world’s first Bitcoin (BTC) wealth management product. The SEC was mad. Hedgeable passed two previous audits with no issues. In 2015-2016, a new ambitious auditor came in and said “we will not leave until we find something.”
In November 2017, the B2B software business of Hedgeable was spun-off and a new entity called Hydrogen was created. Hydrogen quickly amassed large clients, such as TD Bank and Principal Financial, and $6 Million of recurring revenue.
In March 2018, Hydrogen launched an open-source crypto-currency called HYDRO. It was given away for free in an “airdrop” - which was not typical for the time. Most companies sold the tokens in ICOs to raise capital, which averaged over $12.7 Mil in 2017! Hydrogen passed on $12.7 Mil in free revenue to be compliant, but it still didn’t matter to DC.
Everything was going well, until December 2018, when Hedgeable was fined $80k for frivolous violations dating back to 2015, and the SEC proceeded to send the release to hundreds of news publications to damage the Hydrogen business. This, despite the fact that every Hedgeable competitor had been fined 10x-1,000x this amount! e.g. Robinhood paid $135 Mil to SEC/FINRA.
A few months later, a new employee, whom Mike never even met, was hired. Within a few weeks, he magically was a whistleblower for the largest DNC linked firm in Washington D.C, collecting evidence for a 21-page report they would send to the SEC. He left the company a few weeks later after being promised a huge payday, which turned into $850k when Hydrogen settled with the SEC in 2023!
Like Crossfire Hurricane (the Steele Dossier laundered by the Clinton campaign), and the Vindman whistleblower that led to the first impeachment, this is all the government needed to subpoena Mike and get millions of documents to send him away.
The Civil Case
2020 - 2023
Two third-party foundations were established by the over 10,000 developers in the HYDRO community in 2019-2020. They created a decentralized governance structure.
The SEC subpoena (based on the $850k paid off whistleblower) was received in March 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic. They requested every document and communication Mike ever had. They weren’t going to stop until they found something.
After Hydrogen gave away approximately 25% of the HYDRO tokens for free, there was a substantial number remaining in the corporate treasury. The company retained Cooley, one of the top law firms in the country, to advise on ways to safely distribute the remaining tokens.
Destroying the tokens would increase the price significantly. Case in point - when the SEC ordered Mike to destroy his HYDRO tokens in the 2023 Civil Settlement, the price skyrocketed 8x. The SEC doesn’t care about manipulation; they care about control! If the tokens were given away for free, the IRS would have sent a $20 Mil tax bill to Mike and would have sent him to prison for decades for not paying it. There was no good option: heads you win, tails you lose.
The company decided to hire a trading firm to slowly sell the tokens on the open market, as there was considerable demand for the tokens to be used in a dApp marketplace created by the third-party foundations. Most trading firms wanted $250k+ in BTC and hundreds of millions of tokens to trade, which assuredly would lead to manipulation. Hydrogen decided to hire a small firm that only wanted 2BTC (about $12k at the time) and a small number of tokens. How can a $150 Mil market for HYDRO be manipulated with $12k? This seemed like a prudent decision.
A Criminal Case Built on Lies
2023 - Present
Just one hour after Mike voluntarily agreed to ruin everything he worked for over 15-years, and signed a death penalty civil suit ($260k fine, lifetime bans, etc), a judge and the FBI executed a sneak attack, signing an arrest warrant. Mike and his lawyer were totally in the dark. Two days later, six heavily armed FBI agents raided Mike’s small apartment at 7AM!
Mike waited in prison for over 6-hours before they even revealed what he was being charged with. He was facing 65-years in prison for “trying to enrich himself,” as the first sentence of the indictment read, even though having seen every financial document and communication Mike ever had, they knew full well this was a lie. In 2018, Mike had $20 Mil in HYDRO in his wallet, and never sold a penny! He slept in the office and took a $35k salary. The case is built on smears and lies.
Not a single other person involved in the case was arrested at gunpoint. They charged Mike with 4-counts: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and two counts of wire fraud. This overcharging was purposeful. It is impossible to beat the Feds on three distinct counts - just ask the J6 defendants. The conspiracy charges only require a single rat to cooperate with the Feds at trial. Mike’s co-defendant, Shane Hampton, beat 2 of the 4 charges at trial, but lost the conspiracy charges - like thousands of J6ers.
The wire fraud charges were based on a statute to manipulate the volume of the HYDRO cryptocurrency. The volume manipulation alleged by the DOJ was supposed “wash trading” that was less than 0.1% of all trades. They cherry picked a few trades, out of 500,000. Their propaganda team led with this in every release, smearing Mike as a “manipulator.” They knew that their real aim was to get HYDRO labeled as a security, thus circumventing the legislative process and making everything a security (besides BTC, which their Wall Street cronies now control). They knew exposing their real aim would lead to a firestorm of criticism...but, if Mike is a market manipulator, then he deserves what he gets!
The problem is, Mike’s legal team showed in court that not only was no market manipulated, volume actually went down 63% during the period the trading firm worked for Hydrogen! When this was brought up, the Prosecutor didn’t even dispute the data, instead reminding the judge: the statute says volume “can go up...or down...or sideways.” The intent of this law was to prosecute fraudsters that entice people to buy things they otherwise wouldn’t, by making it seem like it’s in high demand. But, how can someone be enticed by volume that goes down 63%?! Heads you win, tails you lose, in the Federal Kangaroo Court.
Legal Industrial Complex
The Future of America
The DOJ has spent over $35 Million prosecuting Donald Trump on a single case! DJT has spent tens of millions of his own money on this case, plus there are many cases in other states.
This “Legal Industrial Complex” creates tens of billions of dollars in income to unscrupulous lawyers in Washington D.C. on the backs of people like Mike and DJT.
The layperson doesn’t understand the extent of this scam. For example, in Mike’s case:
$1,300,000 in civil fines used to fund the SEC
$850,000 paid by taxpayers to a whistleblower
$150,000 to retain a white-collar lawyer
$100,000 for appeals
$50,000 to pay an expert (can be $1 Mil in some cases)
Salaries for prosecutors, FBI agents, judges, court staff, probation, and money spent by DOJ for experts
Plus there were four other co-defendants in this single case, all spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There were millions of dollars spent on this case alone! The Federal prosecutors use cases like Mike’s to apply for partner positions at D.C. law firms and run for higher office - e.g. Kamala Harris, Chris Christie. The SEC uses these cases to beg for more funding from Congress. This corruption and lawfare is the future of America if it’s not stopped now!
