According to Saturday’s VenturaCountyStar newspaper, the judge has refused to release any short term funds that would have kept the e-bullion servers alive and online. I suppose any evidence which might have helped his case can now be taken from back ups.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip Gutierrez said, “It seems more like it’s preserving a business rather than preserving data.”

Gutierrez’s decision, however, did leave the door open for the defense to revise the request and file it again. Fayed’s attorney, Mark Hathaway, said all options would be considered.

“We’re planning on doing whatever it takes to preserve the evidence that show’s the defendants are innocent and allows for depositors to make claims on their funds,” Hathaway said after the hearing in downtown Los Angeles.* http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/aug/30/fayed-loses-first-round-in-federal-case/

The article also points out that e-bullion helped to finger at least one bad guy for DHS.

“The system helped identify a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who applied for an account, which led the Fayeds to forward the information to Department of Homeland Security and brief officials with the National Security Agency in Camarillo, according to the defendants’ status conference report.”