As Prosecutors Submit Evidence, WannaCry Hero's Legal Fund Returns All Donations (buzzfeed.com)

An anonymous reader quote BuzzFeed: The vast majority of money raised to pay for the legal defense of beloved British cybersecurity researcher Marcus Hutchins was donated with stolen or fake credit card numbers, and all donations, including legitimate ones, will be returned, the manager of the defense fund says. Lawyer Tor Ekeland, who managed the fund, said at least $150,000 of the money collected came from fraudulent sources, and that the prevalence of fraudulent donations effectively voided the entire fundraiser. He said he'd been able to identify only about $4,900 in legitimate donations, but that he couldn't be certain even of those. "I don't want to take the risk, so I just refunded everything," he said.
Two days later, Hutchins posted the following on Twitter. "When sellouts are talking shit about the 'infosec community' remember that someone I'd never met flew to Vegas to pay $30K cash for my bail."

Hutchins is facing up to 40 years in prison, and at first was only allowed to leave his residence for four hours each week. Thursday a judge lifted some restrictions so that Hutchins is now allowed to travel to Milwaukee, where his employer is located. According to Bloomberg, government prosecutors complain Hutchins now "has too much freedom while awaiting trial and may skip the country."

Clickthrough for a list of the evidence government prosecutors submitted to the court this week.
According to BankInfoSecurity, this is the evidence submitted by government prosecutors.

• Statements made by Hutchins after he was arrested.
• A CD containing two audio recordings from a county jail in Nevada where he was apparently detained by the FBI.
• 150 pages of Jabber chats between the defendant and an individual.
• Business records from Apple, Google and Yahoo.
• Statements (350 pages) by the defendant from another internet forum, which were seized by the government in another district.
• Three to four samples of malware.
• A search warrant executed on a third party, which may contain some privileged information.

Hutchins' attorneys have requested 45-60 days to review evidence, and on October 13 both attorneys will then give the judge a proposed schedule for the actual trial.

Comments

Shut up

[Paradise Pete]

I notice that the very first bullet point of evidence submitted by prosecutors is "Statements made by Hutchins after he was arrested." As Popehat has said, when the police interview or arrest you, shut up. Don't explain, don't offer reasons or excuses, just shut the hell up and get a lawyer.

Re:Shut up

[drinkypoo]

Meanwhile, your neighbour may have just bled to death. Depending which state you're in, you might well have broken the law.

Bullshit. Unless I have specific knowledge that a crime was committed, I have no such responsibility. And since it was at a time of day at which it was perfectly legal to discharge a firearm, I have no such knowledge. I can't see what's happening over there, even with a spotting scope. There are trees in the way, and it is far. I couldn't even hear what they were shouting about. Maybe they were shouting at a mountain lion that was trying to eat their chickens. They've got a rooster, so I presume they've got some.

If the cops were friendly and the law were sane, I would have called the cops, because I care. But since they often aren't, I didn't, for the same reason.

I've had mixed experiences with police in this town. As a child I was unfairly targeted, and got a ride in the front of a shitty little police car with my hands cuffed too tight and my face against the dash because this racist shitbag statutory rapist swat team assfuck didn't like the cut of my jib. I had not, in fact, committed any crime, he was just sending my father a message through me. On the other hand, more recently someone made a 911 call about supposed domestic violence occurring at my address. They were fairly polite, but they did pull my gate post out of the ground so they didn't have to cut my lock. That's still askew today. My ex-girlfriend's minibike (marked for sale, in yard) was stolen by perhaps the friend of a cop their family was having problems with; after it was stolen, but before they reported it stolen, he called them and told them he did not steal it. And keep in mind that everyone involved in these stories is white. Many, of course, are white trash. Whether I am the same is probably a matter of perspective; in my defense, I'm not all white. If I am trash, I'm at least off-white trash.

Re:Shut up

[martyros]

Don't explain, don't offer reasons or excuses, just shut the hell up and get a lawyer.

That might be the best advice in the US, where they're not allowed to hold your silence against you. But in the UK, where Marcus is from, that's not necessarily the best advice; and they tell you when they're arresting you (paraphrasing), "You don't have to say anything now, but it if you don't, it may harm your case later if your defense depends on answers to the questions we're asking."

Re:Justice in Murica

[Anonymous Coward]

You make it sound like it was different elsewhere. It's always about connections and money. The more you have of both, the more equal you are.