Fowler, Accused of Crypto Fraud, Gets a New Lawyer After Failing to Pay His Old Ones

Reginald Fowler, the embattled former National Football League investor, has received new legal representation five months after his previous lawyers filed a motion to withdraw as his representative counsel.

According to a court document filed in the U.S. Southern District Court of New York on Tuesday, Fowler has hired Edward Sapone of Sapone & Petrillo to appear as his legal counsel.

A report by Law360 on Wednesday also reveals the reasoning behind Fowler’s former lawyers’ decision to withdraw was due to a monetary dispute over prior services rendered.

“Mr. Fowler’s prior counsel withdrew from the case because they were not being paid. Do you understand that?” said U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. during a virtual hearing, as cited in the report. Sapone said he understood and thanked Carter for bringing it to his attention.

Fowler is one of two individuals accused of operating a “shadow banking” service for cryptocurrency exchanges. The pair allegedly acted under the false pretense of processing real estate transactions by opening bank accounts with various financial institutions to illegally store funds for the exchanges.

See also: Prosecutors Detail ‘Shadow Bank’ Accounts in Fowler Crypto Case

Crypto Capital, the shadow bank Fowler is accused of running, was the payment processor holding $850 million of Bitfinex’s funds. Crypto Capital’s bank accounts were seized in 2018 and Bitfinex lost access to those funds.

A followup hearing is set for July 7 by Judge Carter to allow time for Sapone to review discovery, according to the report.