The charity thing is probably a legit mistake. I have a vague recollection of an email chain where he asked how many 911 hashlets were sold, someone told him the number, and he was like, "o shit."
Fraud has to be premeditated. Misappropriation is intentional. I don't think this was either. He probably botched the part of the system that was supposed to put a cap on the sales, and he probably had all sales money go into the same account as regular hashlet sales. By the time he realized that he sold too many, the money was spent, and all he had left was the $10k he actually did set aside for charity.
I'm sorry but the law does not care if your mistake is "legit"
But i think you know this too.
Actually, it does. Fraud requires intent, as does illegal misappropriation.
To clarify, this is fraud in the way that all hashlet sales are fraudulent, but I don't see the evidence that he intended to defraud a charity. I don't think there's any additional fraud going on beyond what occurs during an ordinary hashlet sale. I think it's a fuck up followed by an ugly resistance to make up the difference. There were a lot of really incompetent people making a lot of poor decisions (like the entire concept of Paycoin) and making a lot of mistakes. This smells like a fuck up.
Wrong. He clearly stated that ALL proceeds from the 9/11 charitable Hashlet sales would be donated to a 9/11 charity, and then he did not do it. Then there is the detail about specific laws dealing with 9/11 charities on top of that. The emails that make it clear he is aware of this are evidence that he understood what he was doing. Even if that were not the case, people in positions where they are responsible for conducting business are required to be held to a higher standard of conduct than the average Joe. They have signed legal documents saying they DO know what they are doing and will take responsibility for the actions of the corporation they represent.