Crypto Extortion Charges Dropped Against Steven Nerayoff, an Early Ethereum Adviser

His lawyers say their client was put in a van on the day of his arrest and given a clipboard with a list of names of hundreds of the top players in the crypto industry, from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin to Caitlin Long, the founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, and instructed to give the FBI dirt that would help them make “dozens of convictions” in exchange for a lighter sentence. They also claim that Hlady, Nerayoff’s employee, was an FBI informant who exchanged 100 texts and 45 phone calls with the investigating FBI agent ahead of the pair’s arrest.