DR. SARAFI lawyers seek termination of proceedings against Ron Bielecki — allegations off the table

Berlin, February 26, 2025 — Criminal proceedings against Ron Bielecki for advertising illegal gambling and participation in illegal gambling ended without conviction after defense by DR. SARAFI lawyers.

Review: In 2022, the Berlin public prosecutor opened an investigation against the well-known influencer Ron Bielecki. He was accused of violating the law in 51 cases, namely by advertising illicit gambling and in the act of participating in illicit gambling. There was a media preconviction, and the fine of almost half a million euros, namely 480,000.00€, was already tough.

We immediately took over Mr. Bielecki's defense.

First negotiation in September 2023

At the first hearing in September 2023, we were able to prove in court that the Berlin public prosecutor's office had thought too briefly. The YouTube channels that had links to gambling sites were not run by him. It was a YouTube account from which foreign third parties had copied its Twitch content and uploaded it there for monetization purposes.

At that time, the problem of stealing content (media content) was not as widespread or not as well known. Today, there are even service providers who have content creators and influencers remove this copied content from the platforms. The allegation of illicit advertising against Ron Bielecki could not prevail in court.

The court did not acquit him, but ended the appointment and gave the Berlin public prosecutor the opportunity to investigate. After around 1.5 years and various investigative approaches, the second court hearing took place today: The allegation of advertising illegal gambling was off the table; it should now only involve participation in illegal gambling.

The decisive mistake made by the public prosecutor

The basis of the investigation for the dates of the crime was mainly clips that circulated on the Twitch platform and were used as evidence by the public prosecutor's office. Police and public prosecutors had used the creation dates of the Twitch clips and finally deduced the dates of the alleged acts of crime.

But here was the mistake: The Twitch clips were created by third parties. They are used to capture special moments — short excerpts — from longer streams. However, the public prosecutor's office had mistakenly equated the time at which the clip was created by third parties with the alleged time when the crime was committed by Ron Bielecki.

It wasn't just the dates of the crime that were wrong. It's hard to believe: The same Twitch stream and the same game story were mistakenly used multiple times because other Twitch users had created different clips from the same stream at different times. We were able to prove in court that the entire charge was based on the false assumption of when the acts had taken place.

The termination of proceedings

The court has recognized that, after more than two years, the defendant still cannot be substantiated as to when and that he is said to have participated in illegal gambling from Germany at all. However, this is essential for the presentation of evidence and for a conviction: because it must be established that he was in Germany and played for real money.

Instead of acquittal, the court once again intended to schedule further appointments and to have the public prosecutor's office — although it has failed to provide clean evidence in over two years — reinstate. This would have meant that the proceedings would probably not have been completed even in 2026.

In order to put an end to this incriminating process and the associated preconviction in the media and even after it has been explained that Sections 284 et seq. StGB are classified by the legislator as non-punishable conduct and that the norms should therefore be decriminalized anyway, as announced by the Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) in November 2023, both the public prosecutor and the court have agreed that the defendant will not be convicted and the proceedings will therefore be carried out today It comes to an end.

Instead, the agreement was reached that he would pay a total of 5,000.00€ — instead of the originally required, say and write 480,000.00€ (!) — to the ARCHE Children's Foundation and to a non-profit association for women and girls and the proceedings are thus finally discontinued.

conclusion

This concludes the proceedings against Ron Bielecki. He was not convicted and is therefore still considered innocent (BVerfG NJW 1991, 1530).

We are also mandated under press and speech law for Mr. Bielecki. Representatives of the press are therefore expressly advised to address relevant inquiries exclusively to us and to correct inadmissible suspicious reports from the past.

We are at your disposal for further information or inquiries.

DR. SARAFI Rechtsanwälte
info@sarafi.de