National Roundup

New Hampshire
Sentencing delayed for man convicted of running an unlicensed bitcoin business
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday heard from multiple women who said they were victimized by a New Hampshire man’s unlicensed bitcoin exchange business but postponed a sentencing hearing in the case to evaluate whether restitution is appropriate.

Prosecutors said Ian Freeman, a libertarian activist and radio show host, created a business that catered to fraudsters who targeted elderly women with romance scams, serving as “the final step in permanently separating the victims from their money.”

After a two-week trial, he was convicted of eight charges in December, though his conviction on a money laundering charge was later overturned. He was scheduled to be sentenced on the remaining charges, which include operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and conspiracy to commit money laundering, on Monday but the hearing was delayed until next month.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante said the delay was necessary to give Freeman’s attorneys a chance to object to the prosecution’s push to make restitution part of the sentence. Prosecutors also argue he should get a harsher sentence because victims, many of them elderly, were particularly vulnerable.

While the issue of whether those who sent money to Freeman should be considered victims remains unsettled, two of them read letters in court Monday and a third participated by video remotely.

Karen Miller, of Florida, described herself as a lonely widow who got scammed by a man she met on a dating site. At his instruction, she sent $300,000 to Freeman, wiping out her life’s savings. Another woman, Rebecca Viar, told a similar story of taking out three loans and selling her late husband’s truck to send money to the man who duped her.

“My life and countless lives have been ruined financially and emotionally,” she said. She called Freeman “an ugly hearted person” and said her ability to trust others has been forever damaged.

Freeman has been free on bail pending his appeal and sentencing. Supporters who packed the courtroom Monday gave him a raucous standing ovation when he entered the room.

Oklahoma
Evidence insufficient to charge BTK killer in cold case, prosecutor says
PAWNEE, Okla. (AP) — There isn’t enough evidence to charge the BTK serial killer in the 1976 disappearance of a 16-year-old girl, an Oklahoma prosecutor said Monday despite statements from law enforcement officials calling Dennis Rader a prime suspect.

District Attorney Mike Fisher said at a news conference that he’s not at a point where he could file charges against Rader in the disappearance of Cynthia Dawn Kinney, a cheerleader from the northern Oklahoma city of Pawhuska who was last seen at a laundromat.

But Fisher asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to open a formal investigation into Kinney’s disappearance because of the public interest in the revived cold case, and he will file charges if he learns of evidence that would warrant it, he said.

Osage County sheriff’s officials, including Undersheriff Gary Upton, have recently called Rader a “prime suspect” in Kinney’s disappearance and the death of 22-year-old Shawna Beth Garber, whose body was discovered in December 1990 in McDonald County, Missouri.

Rader, now 78, killed from 1974 to 1991, giving himself the nickname BTK — for “bind, torture and kill.” He played a cat and mouse game with investigators and reporters for decades before he was caught in 2005. He ultimately confessed to 10 killings in the Wichita, Kansas, area, about 90 miles (144.84 kilometers) north of Pawhuska. He is imprisoned for 10 consecutive life terms.

Rob Ridenour, Rader’s attorney, said he had no comment Monday.

A bank was installing new alarms across the street from the laundromat where Kinney was last seen, Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden has said. Rader was a regional installer for security system company ADT at the time, but Virden wasn’t able to confirm that Rader installed the bank’s systems.

Virden told KAKE-TV he decided to investigate when he learned that Rader had included the phrase “bad laundry day” in his writings.

Fisher said he sat in on interviews that Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma investigators conducted with Rader about 90 days ago, but the sheriff has not shared any physical evidence with the DA’s office.

He called the information he has received so far “rumors because they’ve not been substantiated yet.” And he said he hadn’t seen anything “that at this point arises to the level of even reasonable suspicion.”

But Fisher said he had seen things that gave him “pause and concern” about the sheriff’s department, including the way they handled a dig for evidence at Rader’s former property in Park City, Kansas, last month. And he called his relationship with the sheriff “broken.”

“I’m not trying to create a conflict with the sheriff of Osage County,” he said. “But, there are certain ways to investigate a case, and I’m concerned that those proper investigative techniques have not been used. That’s why I asked the OSBI to assist.”

Virden defended his handling of the investigation in an interview published Sunday in the Tulsa World. He also said Rader denied when he spoke to him in prison in January that he had killed anyone but his 10 victims in Kansas, but volunteered that one of his favorite unfulfilled fantasies had been to kidnap a girl from a laundromat.

The prosecutor said he was also concerned for Kinney’s parents, with whom he met for about two hours on Friday. He said they are both in their 80s, and the renewed speculation has taken a physical toll on them.

“Cynthia went missing 47 years ago. They’ve got no answers,” Fisher said. “We have reason to believe that it may have been a homicide. We can’t say that with any absolute certainty, but we’ve seen nothing to suggest otherwise as there’s been no contact with Cynthia Dawn since 1976, since her disappearance.”