Last month, Ross Ulbricht was found guilty of seven charges related to his role in its operation online drug market Silk Road. Ulbricht's attorney, Joshua Dratel, is pushing for a retrial.
In an appeal filed on Friday, Joshua Dratel, the prosecutors in his case Silk Road failed to reveal evidence in due course.
The appeal refers to the "suppression of specific evidence" which resulted in significant effects on the outcome of the trial.
Joshua Dratel also notes that an expert witnessed the case Silk Road, Mr. Andreas M. Antonopoulos, was on a flight at the time of the trial and could not attend the trial.
USA Today reports that Mr. Antonopoulos would challenge the prosecution's analysis and the evidence "that Silk Road bitcoins could be linked to Ulbricht's wallet."
But who is Mr. Andreas M. Antonopoulos?
Mr. Andreas Antonopoulos is currently based in California and is an expert in information security. He is a technologist-entrepreneur and author. He is still a public speaker, and regularly hosts the Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast. He is also teaching his colleagues for a Masters in the science of Digital Currencies at the University of Nicosia.
Previous career
Mr. Antonopoulos received his degree in Computer Science from data Communications and Distributed Systems (Computer Science and Data Communications and Distributed Systems) from University College London.
He has been working with open source and open networks from 1990. He has authored more than two hundred articles published in print and syndicates around the world. He was a collaborator at Research Demerit, and he researched computer security, stating that the biggest threat to computer security was not the experienced hacker, but the overly complex systems that emerged from the rapid change of business.
Participate in Bitcoin
Antonopoulos is a consultant to many Bitcoin startups through his permanent home in Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast.
He was the head of the Bitcoin Foundation's anti-poverty committee until 2014, but resigned due to disagreements with management.
In a statement he explains the reasons for his resignation: "I can no longer have even the slightest cooperation with the Bitcoin Foundation, due to the complete lack of transparency.”
In January 2014 he joined Blockchain.info as Security Officer. In September 2014 he left the role of CSO and became a consultant on the board.
Mr. Antonopoulos publicly criticized Mt. Gox as "systemic risk for Bitcoin, a death trap for traders as it is a business run by the ignorant" since April 2013.
In February 2014 when Mt. Gox, Mr. Antonopoulos released public statements explaining his view on the causes of the Mt. Gox and reviewing the security of funds managed by Coinbase to rebuild part of it confidences.
In April 2014 Antonopoulos organized a fundraising campaign for Dorian Nakamoto, which showed an article by Newsweek as creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The reference techniques used in the article were controversial among journalists and members of the Bitcoin community. The fundraiser, designed to help Nakamoto after the attention he received as a result of the article, was able to obtain 50 bitcoins, worth 23.000 dollars, according to the then price of the digital coin.
With information from USA Today, Wikipedia and TheVerge.
