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Law360, New York (April 30, 2020, 5:34 PM EDT) -- Fraudster Renwick Haddow will be released on bail from a New York City detention center pending his scheduled sentencing for offenses including duping investors in a $37 million bitcoin scam, a federal judge said Thursday, citing the danger the British citizen faces from coronavirus.
Haddow, 51, was scheduled to be released Friday from a privately run detention facility in Queens on $400,000 bail. He will be subject to home confinement, according to strict bail conditions approved by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.
Judge Swain said the release was granted "in light of the pandemic" and directed Haddow to be given detailed instructions on how to adhere to his bail conditions ahead of his scheduled July 10 sentencing.
Haddow was detained in New York in 2018 after being extradited from Morocco. He entered a guilty plea in 2019 on conspiracy and fraud charges after prosecutors charged him with scheming to steal from investors by lying about his Bitcoin Store Inc. and Bar Works Inc. office space business. As part of his plea, Haddow agreed to cooperate against others involved in the scams.
Haddow, who also faces a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission judgment, had a history of lawbreaking before he was brought to the United States and has been hit with heavy penalties in the United Kingdom.
In an April 22 letter Haddow's lawyer Edward Little requested bail, citing Haddow's cooperation and his status as a nonviolent offender.
"It has become increasingly perilous for him to remain at that facility due to the increasing number of inmates and staff who have become infected with the coronavirus," the letter said.
Federal prosecutors consented to the bail plan.
His lawyer did not return a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
Haddow is represented by Edward Little of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.
The government is represented by Vladislav Vainberg and Martin S. Bell of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
The case is USA v. Haddow, case number 1:19-cr-00340, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Amy Rowe.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
