Apparently getting sent to prison for running Ponzi scams is a violation of human rights.

Or so Krstijan Krstic’s lawyers in Serbia would have you believe.

We still don’t have a decision from Serbia’s Minister for Justice, but in the meantime Krstic’s legal team have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

As reported by Niske Vesti;

The defense submitted a request to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to take a measure to stop the extradition due to the danger that, if extradited, they will be denied the right to a fair trial in the United States.

We don’t know when the appeal with the ECtHR was filed, but Krstic’s lawyer claims extradition proceedings in Serbia have once again been put on hold.

Tthe Strasbourg Court of Human Rights immediately adopted the measure and ordered the state of Serbia to stop extradition, until the European Court checks whether all conditions are met, whether they will to be safe there and that they will not have any consequences, that is, that they will not be sentenced to extremely severe prison sentences equal to life imprisonment “, defense lawyer Milan Petrović told Niški Vesti.

According to Kristic’s lawyer, he is facing maximum 20 year prison sentences across multiple counts of fraud.

These sentences top out at 60 years in prison, which Krstic’s lawyer equates to life imprisonment.

Personally I don’t see the basis for claiming a life sentence is a violation of human rights.

All this means that their basic human rights will be endangered due to separation from families, children will be left without parents.

Sucks to have scammers for parents but do the crime, do the time as I see it. Robbing consumers of $70 million over a decade and then hiding behind your kids is pathetic.

What needs to be considered here is 60 years is the maximum sentence available.

James Merrill operated a three billion dollar MLM Ponzi scheme and copped a six year prison sentence.

If we’re being honest, Krstic (right) copping a 60 year sentence is highly unlikely.

Looks good on some bullshit application filed with a human rights court though.

The European Court of Human Rights is asking Serbia to check whether these people will have some treatment that is worthy of every convict, whether they have checked the prison conditions in America, whether they have checked whether they will be able to appeal the large sentence.

Sounds pretty straight forward. The ECtHR has purportedly given the Serbian High Court until July 30th to satisfy the above criteria.

Hopefully we then get a quick decision from the Minister of Justice. Krstic’s extradition in the meantime has been put on hold till at least August 16th.

Stay tuned…

 

Update 24th July 2021 – After spending exactly a year behind bars in custody, Krstic was released under house arrest on July 23rd.