The man who posted a $50,000 bond to free the alleged “Bitcoin Billionaire” scammer from Teton County’s jail can have $15,000 of it back, a judge has ruled.
Jason Irvine agreed in February to post the $50,000 bond so that his then-friend Kevin Michael Segal could be released from the Teton County Detention Center while facing numerous theft charges.
Court documents accuse Segal of tricking Teton County businesspeople into giving him services, a truck, groceries and other goods based on his word that he was wealthy and would pay them back. The total was nearly $212,000 in resort, bar and car dealership bills in Wyoming’s richest county last year, documents say.
Segal had also promised Irvine a hefty bitcoin payout roughly equating to a half-million dollars if Irvine would post the bond, Irvine told Cowboy State Daily in March. Irvine also said he maxed out three credit cards to post Segal’s bond.
Instead of working out his supposed bitcoin deals and paying Irvine back, Segal skipped court and fled, court documents say.
The case prosecutor, Teton County Deputy Attorney Andrew Hardenbrook, asked the court Thursday to let him present this incident at trial as proof of Segal’s alleged pattern of tricking people into thinking he’s wealthy, promising them returns for services, making excuses then moving on without paying them back.
Irvine pleaded this month with District Court Judge Bill Simpson, who oversees this case, to return his bond money to him even though Segal had absconded.
“For reasons that appear just,” Simpson ordered the court clerk to return $15,000 of the total to Irvine in a June 19 order.
The remaining $35,000, however, will go toward Teton County’s public schools, in accordance with state law.
Wyoming law says money of a forfeited state-court bond goes toward the public schools in the county where the case is proceeding.
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For Hardenbrook, the bond incident is just more evidence of Segal’s alleged pattern of deception.
“After (Segal) was released, he made numerous excuses as to why he could not pay Mr. Irvine,” wrote Hardenbrook in a Thursday filing asking Simpson to allow extra evidence at trial.
To introduce extra evidence of someone’s bad acts outside the criminal charges already filed, the prosecutor has to prove that the evidence speaks to the charges and doesn’t prejudice Segal by simply making him look unsavory to a jury.
That request is pending.
Teton County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. John Faicco did not immediately respond to a Monday voicemail request for comment on Segal’s status. The court file still shows Segal as wanted in all 50 states.
As of Thursday, Hardenbrook still considered Segal’s status as “absconded,” says the prosecutor’s filing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
