The federal government and the defense attorney for a Roanoke Rapids man charged in a sweeping catalytic converter theft and tax evasion case filed a joint motion Wednesday for the court to declare the case as complex and set the trial outside the speedy trial deadline.

As of this morning the court in the Eastern District of Virginia had not submitted an order on the motion.

Theodore Nicholas Papouloglou, the man federally indicted in the case, last month pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment lodged against him.

In support of the motion, the government said the United States calculates that the current speedy trial deadline in this case is May 29, excluding the March 20 initial appearance and arraignment of the defendant.

The Speedy Trial Act generally requires that a defendant be brought to trial within seventy days of indictment or first appearance before a judge on the charges, whichever is later. 

The motion argues that the Papouloglou matter is a complex case for the following reasons:

The defendant is charged in a four-count indictment alleging the defendant engaged in a multifaceted criminal scheme that spanned at least two years; involved tax evasion related to income from catalytic converter sales, conspiracy to commit offenses related to stolen catalytic converters, and the operation of an unlicensed money transmission business related to catalytic converters; spanned multiple states; included the participation of numerous co-conspirators; and involved over $15 million in financial transactions.

“The discovery in this case is voluminous and consists of financial and accounting records, text messages, emails, videos, Facebook communications, law enforcement reports, and business records from numerous entities,” the motion says. “The discovery consists of more than 125 gigabytes of electronically stored information. That 125 gb figure includes at least 245,508 discrete documents, which in the aggregate consist of more than 138,000 pages.”

Says the motion: “The volume of discovery and the need to afford defense counsel adequate time for review militates strongly in favor of a finding that the matter is complex and setting trial outside of the current Speedy Trial Act deadline.”

Defense counsel has reviewed this motion with the defendant who concurs with the relief requested by this motion, the document says.

According to federal court records the next scheduled proceeding in the case is an on-the-record status conference for August 19 before District Judge David J. Novak.

An on-the-record conference was also held on March 26.