Facing steep costs to defend himself against a criminal fraud charge, TelexFREE co-owner James Merrill has asked a federal court to release more than $4 million of his money so he can pay his legal fees.
While the Ashland man’s attorney’s 8-page motion doesn’t mention where that money came from, Merrill argues it’s the responsibility of U.S. prosecutors to prove the funds are related to their charge against him, which stems from his alleged role atop what they say was an international pyramid scheme.
“Certainly, the government is in no position to challenge the contention that extraordinary funds are necessary to defend the instant prosecution,” Boston-based lawyer Robert Goldstein wrote in the Tuesday filing in U.S. District Court in Worcester. “Indeed, at the original bail hearing, the government not only argued this was not ‘a typical white-collar case,’ but it proceeded to argue that it ‘is probably the largest financial fraud being prosecuted in the United States currently…'”
Merrill specifically identifies five accounts he hopes to draw from to fund his defense: two held in Merrill’s name containing $79,684.28; two in Merrill’s and his wife Kristin Merrill’s names containing $4,090,085.97; and one in the name of his cleaning company, Cleaner Image Associates, containing $10,643. All of those accounts were frozen by the