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Samuel Armes, a political advisor and supporter of cryptocurrencies, revealed last week that he is organizing “a wargaming session in Miami” to take place in conjunction with the Bitcoin 2023 conference. The House Select Committee questioned Armes last year on his suspected participation in the Proud Boy plot and the January 6 uprising.
Armes stated that the meeting will be a follow-up to two highly successful wargaming sessions I hosted last year, citing the threat of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), financial technology legislation, and the Wells warning sent to Coinbase last week.
Florida Governor Ron Desantis put out legislation to forbid the use of a CBDC that had been nationally adopted on March 20, only two days before Armes’ declaration. The establishment of a CBDC, according to Florida’s top financial officer Jimmy Patronis, would be an effort by the federal government to “track each and every transaction that happens in the world.”
However, the Florida Blockchain Business Association (FBBA), which was established by Armes in 2017, is the organization behind Desantis’ proposed legislation. The FBBA, a “non-profit chamber of commerce,” promotes web3-friendly laws in the state.
Armes and Erika Gemma Flores, with whom he co-founded the FBBA, were discussed at last year’s House select committee questioning about the January 6 uprising. Armes wrote a tactical brief that Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys utilized in their attempt to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election when investigators questioned him about another war scenario.
Armes informed investigators that he was aware of the relationship at the time when Flores allegedly disclosed that paper to Tarrio.
Armes prefaced his impending war game with condemnation of the US government’s practices of mass imprisonment, imperialist wars, and state monitoring, despite his links to the Proud Boys through Flores and Joel Greenberg.
After the publication of his interview with House investigators, Armes seems to have retained his reputation among Republicans in Florida. This is in spite of right-wing conspiracy theories that claim US intelligence and special forces agents provocateurs, for whom Armes claims he served and was trained, were responsible for the January 6 uprising.
Armes offers a podcast and newsletter in addition to war games and a business group that affects Florida’s state crypto policy. However, a few initiatives have vanished in recent times.
Armes was collaborating with Gary Sheng and lawyer John Montague on a political non-profit organization named Sunshin3 prior to news of his interview with the January 6 investigators being public. But as of right now, the company’s website is empty of any information, and its founders’ social media accounts no longer make any mention of it.
For his upcoming war game, Armes will travel to Miami, the crypto scene where he first met Flores and Tarrio.
