Saturday, March 7, 2026

OneCoin Mark Scott Asks Yet More Time Inner City Press won Appeal for Greenwood Letters



OneCoin Mark Scott Asks Yet More Time Inner City Press won Appeal for Greenwood Letters

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast Order

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 4 -- For scam crypto currency OneCoin, Sebastian Greenwood who co-founded the company with Ruja Ignatova was sentenced to 20 years in prison by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Edgardo Ramos on September 12, 2023. Inner City Press was there and live tweeted, thread here

Inner City Press had sought the unsealing of Greenwood's 33 sentencing letters but with him opposing (citing a Mafia case) and the US Attorney's Office inappropriately taking no position, it was denied. Judge Ramos' order is here.

On October 10, Inner City Press filed Notice of Appeal of the sealing of all of Greenwood's letters.

On July 28, 2025, Inner City Press won: "Before: Parker, Park, and Nathan, Circuit Judges. Appellant Matthew Lee appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Ramos, J.) denying his motion to unseal and unredact Defendant-Appellee Karl Greenwood’s sentencing submission. On appeal, Lee argues that he enjoys a right of access to Greenwood’s sentencing memorandum and sentencing exhibits. We conclude that a First Amendment right of access attaches to Greenwood’s sentencing memorandum and sentencing exhibits and therefore requires the district court to make individualized findings to justify sealing those materials. Although the district court’s findings adequately justified the narrowly tailored redactions in Greenwood’s sentencing memorandum, the district court did not adequately justify its decision to seal Greenwood’s sentencing exhibits. Accordingly, we VACATE in part the order of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion." Opinion here.

Now --- F.4th ----, No. 23-7432-cr, 2025 WL 2101302

  On August 12 Greenwood's until now retained counsel wrote in to "request that the Court appoint the undersigned as temporary CJA counsel for the purpose of this submission and any additional briefing or litigation related to Lee’s desired access to Mr. Greenwood’s sentencing exhibits....Mr. Greenwood is in arrears to this firm, which was engaged to represent Mr. Greenwood with respect to his plea and on appeal to the Second Circuit. The Lee litigation regarding public access to his sentencing submission and exhibits has been an unpaid burden for Weddle Law that it has shouldered to date."

Near-immediate opposition was filed to devoting public funds to further pursue the unprecedented withholding in full of these sentencing letters, particularly without a CJA financial affidavit which Inner City Press has requested in advance be unsealed, as it won in US v. Avenatti and other cases.

On August 25, Mark Scott - still not in prison - wrote in asking for bail because he appealed to the Supreme Court. 6 page request on Patreon here.

On August 27 the request was denied: "The request that this Court order the Defendant released on bail pending resolution of the Petition of Writ of Certiorari is denied."

On September 3, while CJA application of Greenwood still not docketed in any way, Mark Scott's lawyer asked for six more weeks with a letter sent directly to Judge Ramos.

On September 8, Scott got eight more weeks, for reasons redacted: "Scott's surrender date is adjourned to November 8, 2025. SO ORDERED (Signed by Judge Edgardo Ramos on 9/4/25)."  There is a person in the Scott case who is in prison but nowhere in the docket on PACER - watch this site.

And on October 31 Scott's lawyer, now at a new law firm, redacted nearly his entire letter asking for yet another delay, to December 4 - and that the US Attorney's Office "takes no position."

After yet more letters, on December 1 Judge Ramos docketed: "re: Adjournment Request. ENDORSEMENT: Mr. Scott's surrender date is adjourned to January 9, 2026."

On January 3, in an entirely redacted letter, Scott asked for more delay, to February 10, 2026.

On January 5 Judge Ramos wrote that the application is granted, Mr. Scott's surrender date is adjourned to February 10.

On February 4 Scott's lawyer wrote in yet again, asking to adjourn surrender to March 10, "The Government has advised it opposes the request but does not intend to submit a written opposition (unless ordered - REDACTED)

On February 5 it was approved: "ENDORSEMENT: The application is granted. Scott's surrender is adjourned to March 10, 2026. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Edgardo Ramos on 2/5/2026)."

On March 4, 2026, this: "Mark S. Scott addressed to Judge Edgardo Ramos from Ario Devlin-Brown, Managing Principal, dated March 4, 2026 re: We submit this letter to request an adjournment of surrender from March 10, 2026 until May 15, 2026 so that Mr. Scott... ENDORSEMENT: A conference to discuss Mr. Scott's application will be held on March 10, 2025, at 11 a.m. (Signed by Judge Edgardo Ramos on 3/4/2026)."

Watch this site. More on Substack here

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