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The US Department of Homeland Security sent a confusing letter last week to Estonian crypto millionaires Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, who are awaiting judgment in Washington state, ordering them to leave the country immediately.
The letter from the DHS gave the two men instructions that conflicted with their court orders, according to which the men are to stay on parole in King County until sentencing in August, The Seattle Times reports.
«DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately,» read the letters sent to both men separately.
«These communications have caused Ivan and Sergei significant anxiety,» attorneys for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin told Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington in a joint letter last week.
Potapenko and Turõgin intend to comply with the court order to stay in King County, despite instructions from the federal government, their New York attorneys Andrey Spektor and Mark Bini told The Seattle Times in an email.
The defense attorneys also worked with prosecutors to resolve the conflicting orders. Homeland Security Investigations approved a one-year deferral of the DHS order to self-deport, starting April 11.
The Estonian men and the DHS are on the same page in a sense, the attorneys said. They plan to ask the court to send Potapenko and Turõgin home to Estonia after their sentencing.
«Although there is nothing Ivan and Sergei would want more than to immediately go home, they understood that they are also under court order to remain in King County,» the attorneys said, according to The Seattle Times.
Letters from the DHS with similar, if not identical, language telling its recipients to self-deport immediately were sent across the country last week, according to reports. Some recipients were US citizens, including a US-born immigration lawyer in Massachusetts.
Estonia extradited its citizens Potapenko and Turõgin to the United States at the end of May last year on charges of crypto fraud and money laundering. In July, a court released them on bail under the condition that they remain within King County.
The men pleaded guilty in mid-February to organizing a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme and agreed to forfeit 400 million dollars obtained through the crime. The court is expected to announce the judgment in May.