ChainCatcher news, according to Solid Intel, French prosecutors have stated that the case involving Telegram founder Pavel Durov will take at least a year to reach the court trial stage, and it is too early to negotiate a settlement.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, on January 31 local time, two insiders stated that U.S. Acting Attorney Ed Martin fired about 30 federal prosecutors who had been handling the January 6 "Capitol Riot" case in the Washington D.C. office for the past four years.The report stated that these prosecutors received their termination notices on the same day. This layoff accounts for approximately 8% of the total number of prosecutors in that office. This decision will impact the civil, appellate, superior court, and violent crime divisions of the office.

ChainCatcher news, according to Digital Asset, South Korean prosecutors have requested to increase the prison term of the major shareholder of the quantitative trading company B&S Holdings to 15 years in an appeal case. This individual is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for a cryptocurrency fraud case involving a total of 6 billion won (approximately 41.75 million USD).The major shareholder, whose surname is Bang, was initially convicted in August 2024 of embezzlement from the digital asset management platform Haru Invest and the blockchain trading system developer Traum Infotech. The mismanaged assets were originally entrusted to Traum Infotech for management by the virtual asset deposit platform Delio. Due to the inability to recover these funds, both Haru Invest and Delio had to suspend customer withdrawal services.Investigators found that Bang had invested most of the customer assets into the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. However, FTX declared bankruptcy in November 2022 due to mismanagement, resulting in these assets being frozen.

ChainCatcher News, President Trump has appointed Danielle Sassoon as the acting head of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, overseeing matters in Manhattan and the surrounding areas.Sassoon previously led the prosecution of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which resulted in Bankman-Fried being sentenced to 25 years in prison. Additionally, she was involved in the Department of Justice's case against Terra founder Do Kwon.Sassoon graduated from Harvard University and Yale Law School, and she served as a clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She will lead the Southern District Attorney's Office until the confirmation process for Trump's nominee, Jay Clayton, is completed.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice plans to release Special Counsel Jack Smith's final report, which accuses Donald Trump of illegally conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Previously, the report had been sent to some members of Congress.In the report, Smith stated that the evidence collected by his office was sufficient to convict President-elect Trump in a trial, but due to Trump's impending return to the presidency, the relevant procedures were not advanced. Court documents from January 11 show that Smith has resigned from his position as Special Counsel and left the Department of Justice.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jin Shi reports, court documents released on January 13 local time show that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has allowed the Justice Department to release the special prosecutor's report on Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election. In addition, the judge has extended the deadline for the suspension of the report on Trump's classified documents case.

ChainCatcher news, according to CNN, Donald Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche is now defending the elected president, stating that he disagrees with the prosecutor's viewpoint.Todd Blanche stated, "The legal team intends to appeal the verdict, strongly disagreeing with most of what the government just said about this case, and disagreeing with the legality of what happened in court during the trial. This is a very sad day. It is a sad day for President Trump, his family, and friends, and it is also a sad day for this country."

ChainCatcher news, according to CNN reports, President-elect Donald Trump appeared on video screens, sitting in front of the American flag, next to his lawyer Todd Blanche. Trump was dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and red striped tie.Prosecutor Joshua Stanglars stated, "Trump shows no remorse for his criminal actions and encourages others to reject the jury's verdict; this defendant has caused lasting damage to the public's perception of the criminal justice system. Trump believes he is above the law."As Stanglars began to criticize Trump, the President-elect leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and shook his head from side to side.

ChainCatcher news, South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok stated that he demands the ruling party and the opposition to reach an agreement on the special prosecutor bill to resolve the ongoing conflict triggered by the arrest of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. (Jin Ten)

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi Data reports, at 6:14 AM local time on the 3rd, the Korean High-ranking Officials Crime Investigation Office set out to execute an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol. At 7:11 AM local time, the Korean Public Prosecution Service began to enter the presidential residence to execute the arrest warrant for Yoon Suk-yeol.Previous news, on December 31, 2024, the Western District Court of Seoul, South Korea, issued an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol on charges of instigating a rebellion and abusing power. This is the first time in South Korea's constitutional history that an arrest warrant has been issued for a sitting president. The arrest warrant is valid until January 6.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jin10 reports, the South Korean police, public prosecution office, and the Ministry of National Defense have jointly established an emergency martial law joint investigation headquarters.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office has shut down 40 NFT scam marketplace websites after an 85-year-old artist was scammed out of $135,000.The Brooklyn District Attorney's office stated on December 6 that someone impersonating an art dealer contacted the victim on LinkedIn, convincing him to mint his artwork on a fake NFT marketplace similar to New York's OpenSea. He was later told he had earned a profit of $300,000—but to withdraw the money, he had to pay a "fee" of $135,000. He raised the funds by completely draining his retirement accounts, using credit card payments, and taking out loans.The office also added that this counterfeit OpenSea website "appears to be controlled and funded by Nigerian sources," and some of the now-closed websites prompted visitors to enter their cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases, "which would allow scammers to completely empty the contents of users' online wallets."

ChainCatcher news, according to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean prosecution, which is investigating the emergency martial law situation on December 3, stated on the 8th that President Yoon Suk-yeol is being investigated as a suspect for alleged treason.Park Se-hyun, head of the special investigation team for the emergency martial law situation (Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office), stated at a press conference that they have received many reports accusing Yoon Suk-yeol of committing treason, and the prosecution is investigating according to procedures. Park Se-hyun said that the prosecution has no plans to refrain from investigating treason and will investigate both abuse of power and treason allegations. Although treason is not originally within the scope of prosecution investigations, the Prosecutors' Office Act allows the prosecution to investigate crimes directly related to abuse of power. In this case, the allegations of treason and abuse of power are inseparable.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, the Special Investigation Department of the Korean Prosecutor's Office stated that it has received many complaint letters regarding President Yoon Suk-yeol and has initiated an investigation.

ChainCatcher News: Special Counsel Jack Smith of the U.S. Department of Justice submitted materials to the U.S. Federal Court on the 25th, abandoning the litigation process for two criminal cases against former President Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House, regarding allegations of overturning the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and mishandling government confidential documents.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams announced that he plans to resign on December 13, and his deputy Edward Kim will temporarily take over other duties.After Donald Trump was elected President of the United States on November 5, he announced he would nominate former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to manage the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. The Southern District of New York is renowned for its independent status and has handled many high-profile financial fraud cases.During Williams' tenure, he completed the prosecution of former cryptocurrency exchange FTX founder SBF and family office founder Bill Hwang of Archegos.

ChainCatcher news, according to CNN, U.S. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith stated on Monday that he will move to dismiss the election subversion case against elected President Trump and seek to withdraw the case in a court document submitted to the judge.Trump has stated that he would fire Smith once he takes office, breaking the previous norms regarding special prosecutor investigations. Smith wrote in a six-page document: "The Department of Justice's position is that, as required by the Constitution, this case needs to be dismissed before the defendant is sworn in."Smith's criminal pursuit of Trump over the past two years, on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his mishandling of classified documents, marks a very unique chapter in American history: never before has a former White House occupant faced federal criminal charges.

ChainCatcher news reports that, according to the indictment, U.S. prosecutors have charged five members of the "Scattered Spider" gang with hacking dozens of companies and individuals, resulting in the theft of sensitive data and at least $11 million in cryptocurrency. Prosecutors stated that approximately $4 million of the stolen cryptocurrency has been recovered, and investigators are still calculating the total value involved in the data theft.California federal prosecutors said the defendants used various fraudulent methods, including SMS phishing and SIM swapping, to obtain legitimate credentials from employees in order to gain unauthorized access to their accounts and company networks from late 2021 to spring 2023. U.S. authorities indicated that the defendants exploited this access to steal confidential data and identify and access individuals' cryptocurrency accounts and wallets.It is reported that Scattered Spider is a decentralized organization that often uses social engineering techniques to trick IT staff into accessing company networks, with some members located in the United States and the United Kingdom.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Washington Post, the ruling in the "hush money" case involving President-elect Trump, originally scheduled for November 26, has been indefinitely postponed. The New York prosecutor is willing to delay the trial until after Trump's second term in the White House ends. Trump will be inaugurated on January 20 and serve until early 2029.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has rejected the request from elected President Trump to dismiss his criminal conviction in the "hush money" case following his victory in the presidential election. Alvin Bragg suggested freezing the case during Trump's presidency.In a letter to the judge handling the "hush money" case, Alvin Bragg emphasized that the jury had previously found Trump guilty on 34 felony charges in this case. However, considering the unprecedented nature of the case, namely that Trump could become the first U.S. president to face felony charges, Alvin Bragg proposed the possibility of freezing the case during Trump's four-year term, so that Trump would not be sentenced for his crimes before leaving office.