Scroggin's Story

February 10 at 5:54pm

Hey guys. I got with Justin/Woot to get his account of everything that happened following EK's shutdown and he wanted me to say the following:

The downfall of EK - what really happened - not what is alleged or theorized:

In February of 2012, I had moved one of my good childhood friends from Indiana in with my girlfriend and me at my residence in Jacksonville. I wanted to help him get on his feet by way of vending, which turned out to be a terrible decision, because of his characteristics as a drug user and the fact that he was basically as lazy as a person as you could get. I backdated the history for MicroNutrientSupply to make it appear that MNS was a vendor and had been around for a long time - when in fact MNS had only been around for a few weeks and was originally an LHG member whose name I cannot remember - a "shell" vendor I had basically created for this purpose.

I allowed my friend to take over MNS, who at that time, didn't have much of a reputation. I helped my friend/MNS find a few chemicals, however most of the products offered weren't even stocked by MNS, rather they were shipped from other vendors on EK - MNS was just given a good price and would sell the products (such as etizolam) and the other vendor would send the difference from each transaction after sending out the products to the customers.

It was alleged in the criminal complaint and indictment that I even sold in LHG which is entirely false. They also made MNS seem like some big operation that lasted for a long period of time which is also untrue. It lasted for a matter of weeks - a couple of months total at MOST (from around late January until April of 2012). Towards the last 2 or 3 weeks (prior to my April 10, 2012 arrest), I had started to phase MNS out through intervention because my friend was not sending packages out on time, answering messages, etc. and I didn't want to deal with the issue of people complaining to upper staff on EK about this issue - since I was somewhat responsible for MNS but wasn't actually running it as believed or alleged. So in the process of "closing shop" (which I actually did shut MNS down for the last 2 weeks or so before my arrest), my friend started another account "Navi Supply" which didn't have a chance to really take off because of my arrest.

About a month before my arrest, Mr. Mike comes back to the scene. Some may remember he was a merchant marine and worked overseas. His wife was "running shop" for him. I was starting to become frustrated with EK because of living under the constant stress and worry of something happening like what was to come in April. It started to make me paranoid and in turn, I turned to RC's. I am not going to lie and say that using didn't affect my judgment - because it did to an extent, but not in way that had me making horrible decisions that effected thousands of people (like Boswell) - but it did have an adverse affect on my trust - and I turned to the people that I had turned to originally whenever I took over EK from Boswell (lol) back in 2011 - Mr. Mike and the upper EK Staff - my head moderators and regular moderators.

I can say nothing bad about the EK staff. Those guys are all great - Glimmi, Raui, william_doe, Saber, Brandon, all of you guys (I know I'm not naming everyone but seriously... its been three years almost). But I never expected that Mike would betray me of all people. I was not a vendor! But that didn't matter. Mike asked me to broker a deal for him to "get [him] back on his feet." I should have seen all of the signs (the persistence mostly) of it being a setup, but you don't ever expect your friends to do something like this to you. I never questioned him about where the money was his wife made for the RC's she had supposedly sold out of, or the fact that all of his money was supposedly tied up in a lawyer to deal with her "car wreck". I just took his word he was in a bad situation and, as a good friend, tried to help him out with something that I had never done before and never had involvement in - brokering a deal for RC's - because I didn't in fact sell RC's - I sold advertisement on EK - much different.

I got a deal together, sent Mike an additional $600 of my own money (I wasn't making the "$10,000/m" as the government tried to make it seem at this point. I had only just started to raise the EK vendor and advert costs about a month prior to my arrest and in turn was planning to use that money to start paying the moderators and other administrator to better run the EK community as well as, in turn, more profit for myself - it was a business after all). After I got the deal together for Mike for the chemicals in my indictment, I went to Alabama for a few days with a few EK friends. I got back on April 8th. I had been making plans with my girlfriend at the time to go to Savannah for a week because her birthday and our anniversary were coming up and she went to college there - kind of a surprise for her. The night before my arrest, I took her to dinner where Homeland Security (not the DEA as everyone seems to think) followed me. We ate, went home, and planned to leave the next day for Savannah. The next morning there is someone practically beating on my door - I am woke up and look outside and see people in uniforms. I wake up my roomate and send him to answer the door. As soon as he says "I'm coming", they kick the door in.

They had no search warrant but claimed that we "let them in" - yet that is untrue - hence the door being kicked clean in. Instead they flashed my arrest warrant. They attempted to separate everyone. My roomate basically threw me entirely under the bus. My girlfriend was more worried about me than anything. I just told her to be calm and we would figure this all out. When they questioned me, I ensured them that I sold advertisement, that the chemicals on EK were sold not for human consumption by vendors for research chemicals and that anyone who mentioned any type of illegal use of chemicals for HC was banned and removed from the site. The agent laughed. I later found out he entirely quoted me out of context to make it seem like I had admitted that I knew that the RC's were for HC.

They had forced me under coercion to sign a miranda waiver - and basically rushed me in doing so by not letting me read the statement. They told me "if you don't talk with us now, we will take your girlfriend and roomate." I wasn't going to let my girlfriend, who had nothing to do with anything at all related to EK - who had a career in the education field as a teacher suffer for something she had no involvement in, which is why I didn't request to have a lawyer there right away. Not to mention that I intended to say the same thing that everyone in the scene had said before - that the RC's were for research purposes, which is exactly what I did. But I didn't expect that the government would lie and use things out of context. But it didn't stop there. They went and illegally searched my residence. They claimed that they were verbally given permission to do so which is entirely untrue. They managed to obtain some chemicals from my residence and other materials that they took.

I was sent to a holding facility in Folkston, GA - a GEO prison. From there, I was forced to sign my rights to extradition, and had to be transported to Virginia to fight my case. When I finally arrived to Virginia via Con-air (after staying at a few other prisons on the way), I was housed in a regional jail. From there I started going through the process of meeting my public defender. I had Elyse trying to contact anyone and everyone to try and get a lawyer for me - as the feds had taken everything from me and I had no money left to hire a lawyer myself - but that never came through... It was as if no one wanted to help me. I had heard all sorts of crazy allegations. People had assumed I had or was doing the same thing Mike did, which made no sense to me. I was assured time and time again that if I ever found myself in this situation that the vendors would be there for me. That never happened.

When I finally met my lawyer, despite him being a public defender and the rumors surrounding him, I was a bit more relieved because I could tell he wanted to help me, that my case wasn't ordinary to him and not the typical "run of the mill" cases he probably gets. He had an intern from Jacksonville I became friends with also working on the case.

How things work in the federal system is, whenever you are charged with a crime or crimes, there is a sentencing guideline for that crime. In my case, a drug crime for importing an analogue controlled substance. The drug amounts are based of a scale which takes a controlled substance and then converts that to marijuana and in turn, that amount of marijuana is determined as a basis for your sentence. The problem with synthetics is that this creates entirely disproportionate sentences. For example, someone who is caught with 1gram of powder JWH or 1gram of incense containing some JWH is still charged with 180 grams of marijuana. Even with the stimulants and salts, you have an issue. For example, some of the substances were based off another substance which was based off another substance which was converted to marijuana and used to calculate a base offense. At no point is it taken into consideration whether the "analogue substance" is substantially weaker or stronger to reach the decision of a sentence.

In my case, the 2,200 grams (they found close to 200 grams in my house) converted to a base offense of level 30. But it doesn't stop there! I then get enhancements for other characteristics of the offense. Had I taken an open plea, I would have faced a base offense of 30 for the drugs, 4 points for organization of the offense (despite me truly just being a broker), 2 points for importing (despite me already being charged for importing), 2 points for mass marketing "relevant conduct" (because Mr. Mike sold on my website and they alleged I sold on there through MNS), and 2 points for maintaining a premises for the purpose of distributing - which my attorney believed wouldn't apply and that I could beat because this enhancement was primarily for "trap houses" whereas I primarily lived in, resided in, and used my website to run EK - an advertising business for a grey area - RC's. Not illegal.

The statute I was charged under, carried a penalty of 0-20 years. Meaning the court could have sent me home on probation - could have given me time served. But the "sentencing guidelines" as outlined above, gives an "advisory guideline range" for the court to go by. My lawyer, upon calculating this, realized that, even if I accepted responsibility and received three levels off from pleading guilty, I was still looking at a guideline range somewhere around the statutory max - 20 years - so I might as well go to trial.

The government in turn offered a plea bargain that, if I pled guilty, they would seek the low end of the guideline range and not seek an aggravated role enhancement, which removed the 4 level enhancement for organizer and also the 2 level enhancement for importing which fell under the aggravated role enhancement. With acceptance of responsibility, this calculated a total offense of 31.

Once your offense level is calcuated, your criminal history is used. There is certain types of charges that can and cannot be used against you. In my case, only one adult charge could be used against me. Category 1 (the lowest level of offenders) allows for you to have no or one criminal history point. However, the government wanted to boost my sentence as high as possible, so in turn, they stated that, while the instant offense I was charged for started on or about April 6, 2012, they used "relevant conduct" to start my "earliest offense date" from the time that I started EK. This was within 5 years of a juvenile charge of mine - a violation of juvenile probation - which gave me a second criminal history point and put me in category 2. The higher the category, the higher the guideline range that is advised to the court to follow for sentencing. Had I been in category 1, I could have obtained the safety valve and received an additional 2 levels off my base offense, as well as being 1 category lower is about the equivelant of 1 level lower towards my total offense. All of this information can easily be researched by checking the US Sentencing Guidelines at USSC.gov. (I was sentenced under section 2d1.1)

After deciding to plea guilty - because my lawyer said that by delaying I'd lose my acceptance of responsbility and have a lot more time to do.
My lawyer was forced to withdraw from my case due to a "conflict of interest". I was then appointed a court appointed attorney who turned out to be the worst possible person to handle my case.

My new attorney was to represent me through the sentencing phase. I had expected that I could argue for category 1, as my instant offense should be based off the charged conduct, not when I started my website when using my criminal history against me. He failed to argue this entirely. In fact, the new attorney didn't even go over my old attorney's position on sentencing to ensure it was correct - he copied his old notes and requested a sentence based on what he thought was correct: 108 months (9 years).

In fact, by my calculations, had I received category 1, and received the extra 2pt's off for the safety valve, and have the 2pt enhancement for maintaining a premises removed, my guidelines would have called for 70 to 87 months - the low end being 5 years 10 months. However, my attorney never went over the pre sentence report (which recommended the sentence range and the enhancements which they felt applied in my case) with me as he was supposed to and I brought this up at sentencing. He listed the objection to maintaining a premises but failed to even orally argue it at sentencing - he incorrectly argued my objection to being put in category 2 - which the judge denied but still gave to me by way of a "downward departure" because he felt my sentence was too harsh, that sending me to prison would do more harm than good, etc. My judge actually said some really great things at sentencing in my behalf. He recommended me to a camp close to my family and said he didn't believe prison was appropriate in my case and would do more harm than good. My lawyer, instead of using this as a reason to request a large downward departure, or a specific sentencing, such as 3 or 5 years, sat there saying nothing. In fact, he came into court a few minutes late, sweating and nervous like he was the one facing all of the time.

In the end, I got screwed over because of a lawyer not doing his job properly as far as the sentence I received. Despite the judge's recommendations, the BOP does what they want and sent me to a medium security prison in West Virginia. After about 7 or 8 months, they used a population control and moved me to USP Atlanta, which actually a medium, not high security as some people may think. Atlanta was just a bad spot because it is old and is ran badly. However, while at Atlanta, I got charged with a code 108 possession of a hazardous tool "shot". It was alleged that I had a cellphone because of a photo and video of my face with a white wall in the background which the investigator claimed was "from within the prison". However he failed to indicate how this was identified as coming from within the prison. There was no timestamps to show when the video and/or photo was taken either. I'm in the process of appealing this through an administrative remedy now and will eventually take it to the district court here in the Ninth Circuit where I am being held since 40 days good time was taken from me for the offense.

For the offense, I was also transferred - as far as I could possibly get from home - to California to another medium. I actually only have low points now, and could go to a low. If the shot is overturned, which I believe it will be as its based off a theory, there is no actual contraband used as evidence to show construction possession and case law would be precident in my favor.

That is the basics of how things went. I know I've left things out, but that is easy to do on here - I get charged $0.05 a minute, and even when you type fast as I do - that adds up. I only get 30 minutes per session and have to wait an additional 30 minutes to come back, so I have worked on this a bit at a time. But if anyone has questions, I'm happy to clarify or input anything related to all of this.

I know theres been speculation about when I would come home. First off, we don't have parole in the feds. Parole was abolished in the 1980's when they wanted to get "tough on crime" (we see how well thats worked - a federal prison system thats grown enormously and not enough bed space or money to properly run and manage it) and "hard on drugs". Well, its time to get smart on crime. The feds want to criminalize everything. Probably 50% of the people in here, are in here for petty crimes that the feds made into something big. My case is no exception. I wasn't some big time guy. I sold advertisement to big time guys yet I will most likely do more time than those "big time guys". If its not an immigration case that they are holding someone in here for 5 or 10 years, its a drug crime where they stack on the total weight, or "ghost weight" over a period of time to make someone sound like a kingpin. In my case, the chemicals weren't even for me. They weren't mine at all. My money didn't pay for it, I wasn't to receive anything out of the deal, in fact I was out $600 of my own money for helping someone I thought was a friend. Where was the karma in that Mr. Mike?

I'm doing good now. I try my best to continue my study in computer science. I know a lot of people were surprised with my knowledge based off my background. I was a bored underachiever in school and didn't apply myself properly. I quit school because the work was boring, not hard and that was my own fault. But I'm trying to turn my life around and prepare for a release. I am over halfway done at this point. I will receive a year off for taking the residential drug program, and 6 months in a halfway house. There was an amendment to the guideline this year which actually just resulted in the court taking some time off my sentence for that very reason (they lowered all drug offenses by 2 levels). They are currently restructuring economic (fraud) crimes this year, but also the scope of relevant conduct will be changed - which will most likely allow me to be placed in category 1 and get additional time off my sentence, which could put me home even sooner. I'm expecting to be home sometime in 2017 as of now, but hopefully even sooner. At the halfway house, I can go on home confinement and be back at home.

I am still with my incredible girlfriend who has stayed by my side through this and I'm very thankful for her. I'm blessed to have someone like her in my life.

I'm currently in the process of studying everything related to the computer science field in depth - since I have so much time. I plan to release here in California to San Francisco and further my career in the IT field upon release. If anyone was interested in helping me with obtaining some textbooks - it would be greatly appreciated.