#

Free State Project icon Ian Freeman walked into his sentencing hearing in the Warren B. Rudman Courthouse in Concord a hero, but he walked out a couple of hours later labeled a black-souled villain by one of the many alleged victims.

In a courtroom packed with Free Staters, Freeman got two standing ovations at the start of Monday’s proceedings. He had reason to be optimistic as Judge Joseph LaPlante agreed to dismiss one of his money laundering convictions before the hearing started. LaPlante said it was a close call, but there was not sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict for that one count.

That was the last positive development for Freeman. Soon, LaPlante decided to hear from some of the women victimized by Freeman’s Bitcoin operations.

“My life, and countless other lives, have been ruined,” Rebecca Viar said.

Freeman is facing years in federal prison, but now thanks to women like Viar, he could face even more. LaPlante halted Monday’s scheduled sentencing hearing in order to consider adding more time to the potential penalty in light of the many elderly women scammed with Freeman’s aid. He’s also considering making Freeman pay up to $3.4 million in restitution. 

A jury convicted Freeman in December on charges of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and income tax evasion.

Freeman argued that he’s a victim of an oppressive government, a martyr for promoting financial liberation from fiat currency. His defense team is still pushing the theory, even after the convictions, claiming the financial laws and regulations used to convict him don’t apply to financial products like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

But Viar and other women hurt by scammers told a different story. In their version, Freeman was central to the crimes that took advantage of their loneliness, destroyed their finances, stripped them of a secure retirement, and forever took away their trust in other people.

“Ian Freeman was the planner and instigator of this entire scheme,” Viar said.

Viar, an elderly widow, was ripped off by an online romance scammer known as Michael Glenn Wilson. The crook, who has thus far not been charged, used Freeman’s Bitcoin-selling services to facilitate the crimes, according to prosecutors.

In Viar’s case, she emptied her savings account, cashed out her insurance policy, took out loans, and even sold her dead husband’s truck. Rather than send the money directly to Wilson, he conned his alleged victims into buying Bitcoin from Freeman. The Bitcoin was then deposited into a digital wallet Wilson could access.

Karen Miller was planning to retire to Florida with her husband when he died in 2018. Miller still moved to the Sunshine State after her husband’s death, but found herself lonely. She met a man named Jerry Harmon online, and before long she was sending him money.

Miller handed over everything to her online Romeo, to the tune of $300,000. She kept going, too, maxing out credit cards for Harmon. Like Viar, Harmon was instructed to buy Bitcoins directly from Freeman, which Harmon would then access through a digital wallet. Harmon, who has never been caught, even had Miller buying Bitcoin using money from other women. Harmon told her these women were the wives and girlfriends of his employees.

Miller finally stopped when other Harmon victims reached out to her and told her the truth. Now, instead of enjoying her golden years as a Florida retiree, Miller is working at a Publix grocery store.

Freeman’s lawyers, respected criminal defense attorneys Marc Sisti and Richard Guerrero, never considered the women victims in this case. Freeman was caught for failing to adhere to financial and banking regulations. He was never accused of being a scammer.

Prosecutors have argued Freeman either knew, or at best actively worked to not know, he was facilitating crimes with his Bitcoin transactions. Freeman was known throughout the Bitcoin community for charging higher fees than other market operators, and for asking fewer questions, prosecutors have said.

But LaPlante implied Monday Freeman wasn’t merely laundering money for the scammers, he was taking a role in the scam. Freeman was taking money from the victims and then sending it to the criminals.

LaPlante said it is likely he will rule that Freeman needs to pay restitution to the many scam victims who bought Bitcoin from him. LaPlante also said he would adopt a “vulnerable victim adjustment” to the sentencing guidelines, increasing the range of prison time LaPlante could use for his final sentencing order.

After the hearing, Freeman remained upbeat. He’s still confident of ultimate victory in his caase, even if that means going through the appeals process. Getting one of the money laundering charges dismissed is a good sign, he said.

“Being able to challenge these things after the fact is a nice thing,” Freeman said.

As for the victims like Viar and Miller, Freeman said he has no guilt for what happened to them.

“It seems like they’ve been lied to and told I had something to do with these crimes against them, which I didn’t,” Freeman said. “I didn’t have anything more to do with what happened to them than the bank tellers that sent their life savings away. If anything, our procedures were even more in-depth than what the bank tellers were doing.”

Maybe hoping the new Republic of New Hampshire won’t sign an extradition treaty, Free Keene’s Ian Freeman is taking to the skies this weekend, encouraging the Granite State to leave the U.S.A.

Freeman is part of NHExit, a small group of so-called ‘liberty activists’ whose members in the state House of Representatives put forward a bill last year to have New Hampshire secede from the U.S. He’s also due in U.S. District Court in Concord later this summer to be sentenced in his money laundering and tax evasion convictions. He faces up to eight years in prison.

“The point is just to raise awareness, there’s only so much you can put up on a banner,” Freeman said Friday.

This weekend, NHExit is paying a pilot to fly a small airplane over the state carrying a banner urging New Hampshire to ditch D.C. and declare independence. 

“Washington is the reason we can’t have nice things,” said Dave Ridley, a member of Freeman’s orbit.

Ridley said part of the inspiration for the pro-secession flight stunt is the FBI raid on Freeman’s home and businesses three years ago that landed him in legal hot water. 

“In part, this is a reaction to Federal raids on New Hampshire’s Bitcoin businesses,” Ridley said.

Freeman said Friday the plane has nothing to do with his convictions, and is not sure what Ridley is talking about. For Freeman, it’s all about educating people about the secession movement. NHExit is going to be releasing polling data from the University of New Hampshire that shows about half of New Hampshire residents haven’t even heard of the movement. 

“Right now, it is not very (realistic) and there’s a long way to go to change people’s minds,” Freeman said. “There are a lot of questions that will need to be answered.”

The plane will fly over Manchester, Concord, and Nashua on Saturday as part of the effort to rally like-minded secessionists to the cause. Perhaps it will end up being more popular than NHExit’s secession bill, which got just 13 votes in New Hampshire’s 400-member legislature.

Big changes, like a state leaving the U.S. to form an independent country, can happen and happen peacefully, Freeman said. He pointed to Great Britain’s exit from the European Union, and the continuing changes to the legal status of recreational drugs.

“It might take a couple of decades, but we can change people’s mind on this,” Freeman said.

Freeman was found guilty of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and income tax evasion.

He was the lone Crypto 6 defendant to go to trial after four others took plea deals. Charges were dropped against the fifth. He was arrested during a March 2020 raid at his Keene home along with co-defendants Aria DiMezzo and Nobody, formerly known as Rich Paul. Freeman’s ex-girlfriend Renee Spinella and her husband, Andrew Spinella, were arrested at their home in Derry. Alstead resident Colleen Fordham, 63, was also arrested as part of the bust, but her charges were dropped.

According to prosecutors, Freeman took in millions of dollars through Bitcoin exchanges and Bitcoin ATMs with the help of DiMezzo and the others. He reportedly used personal bank accounts and accounts for made-up churches like the Shire Free Church, the Crypto Church of New Hampshire, the Church of the Invisible Hand, and DiMezzo’s Reformed Satanic Church to conduct the Bitcoin businesses. 

According to court records, Freeman allegedly lied to banks in opening accounts for his churches and other businesses and got the others to open accounts on his behalf. Part of Freeman’s operation was helping cyber criminals swindle money from lonely victims, the indictments revealed.

Freeman was one of the original Free State pioneers in New Hampshire, part of the libertarian movement to change state politics. He was considered an instrumental evangelist for the movement until 2014, when he made repeated comments on his radio show advocating lowering the age of consent for sex with minors. The Free State Project formally distanced itself from Freemen at the time.

Libertarian activist Ian Freeman was found guilty of several felonies Thursday in the Bitcoin money laundering case. 

Freeman was at the center of a Bitcoin sales and donation operation that used his churches, such as the Shire Free Church in Keene, and hubs to launder money from cyber criminals, according to prosecutors.

The jury took a few hours Wednesday and Thursday to find Freeman guilty on charges of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and income tax evasion.

Freeman is set for a sentencing hearing in April. He faces up to eight years in prison.

Freeman was the lone Crypto 6 defendant to go to trial after four others took plea deals. Charges were dropped against the fifth. He was arrested during a March 2020 raid at his Keene home along with co-defendants Aria DiMezzo and Nobody, formerly known as Rich Paul. Freeman’s ex-girlfriend Renee Spinella and her husband, Andrew Spinella, were arrested at their home in Derry. Alstead resident Colleen Fordham, 63, was also arrested as part of the bust.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Fordham early in the case. DiMezzo, Nobody, and the Spinella all took plea agreements that netted them light sentences.

Freeman was accused of taking in millions of dollars through Bitcoin exchanges and Bitcoin ATMs with the help of DiMezzo and the others. Freeman reportedly used personal bank accounts and accounts for made-up churches like the Shire Free Church, the Crypto Church of New Hampshire, the Church of the Invisible Hand, and DiMezzo’s Reformed Satanic Church, in order to conduct the bitcoin businesses. He allegedly lied to banks in opening accounts for his churches and other businesses and got the others to open accounts on his behalf, according to court records. Part of Freeman’s operation was helping cyber criminals swindle money from lonely victims, according to the indictments.

Freeman, DiMezzo, and Nobody are all part of the Free Keene collective, an offshoot of the Free State Project. The Free State Project made a show of kicking Freeman out of the movement in 2014 after he repeatedly advocated for lowering the age of consent. The Free State Project is a Libertarian initiative to overtake the state’s government. Freeman is an advocate of seceding from the United States of America.