The trial of the inventor of the cryptocurrency PlexCoin will finally open at the end of January, Dominic Lacroix having seen his request for a stay of proceedings for unreasonable delays and abusive procedures being rejected on Monday morning.
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Even if the end of the trial will take Lacroix and his spouse Sabrina Paradis-Royer, also accused, to a total delay of 32 months, far from the 18 months above the ceiling set by the Jordan decision, Judge Steve Magnan made the defense responsible for a large part of these delays, thus rejecting their request to terminate the proceedings.
In total, of the 32 months of delays, the magistrate sets the deferrals attributable to the defense at around 14 months.
“The court’s analysis does not allow us to conclude that there have been sustained efforts by the defense to speed up the proceedings,” explained Judge Magnan, recalling that both parties had a role to play in order to close their cases within the parameters of Jordan.
“Frivolous proceedings”
The court assessed the file as a whole and notably identified a period of more than a year between the disclosure of the evidence and the consultation thereof by the defendants’ lawyers.
This long period thus delayed the trial, the court considering that a delay of six months would have been reasonable for the preparation of the trial.
And the “Rowbotham” type motion filed by the defendants to have their defense paid by the state is another element pointed out by the judge to explain the delays caused by the defense.
With this request, Lacroix tried to prove to the court that he did not have the means to pay his lawyers because of his setbacks caused by the proceedings undertaken. But on the other hand, he and his spouse continued to lead a sumptuous lifestyle, as evidenced by the expenses of $ 3.1 million that they accumulated between November 2017 and July 2020.
“The Rowbotham motion had no chance of success and constituted frivolous proceedings which only contributed to delays,” Judge Magnan insisted in his decision.
Abuse of process also rejected
The defendants had also filed a motion for judgment for abuse of the prosecutor and the investigators, a request which was also dismissed by the court.
If there were indeed certain errors in the disclosure of the evidence made by the investigators of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Judge Steve Magnan considers that we cannot conclude from this that there was a deliberate strategy or a relentlessness that harms the accused. Especially since these errors were quickly corrected, he recalled.
“In a case like that of the defendants, in which millions of documents are collected and analyzed, it is normal for incidents relating to the disclosure of evidence to occur”, underlined the judge, insisting on the fact that the importance was that no bad faith is demonstrated.
Recall of facts
Lacroix and his spouse are accused by criminal proceedings of illegal investments for the sale without a prospectus of the PlexCoin cryptocurrency and the dissemination of false information in connection with it. It was the Autorité des marchés financiers that investigated this case under the Securities Act. A former employee of Lacroix in PlexCoin, Yan Ouellet, is also accused in this case.
When the cryptocurrency was launched in 2017, Lacroix promised its investors a staggering return of 1354%. About 15,000 people have invested and $15M has been raised by Lacroix’s company when the AMF raises a red flag.
In total, in the event of a conviction, the AMF intends to claim $12.5 million from Lacroix and $6.2 million from Sabrina Paradis-Royer. Prison sentences could also be imposed on them.