Bitcoin Forum

[EDITED TO ADD - Short version: I bought 52 Bitcoins years ago, from Intersango and forgot about them, leaving them on the server. Because I'm an idiot, that's why.  When I found out how much bitcoins were now worth, I thought I'd use them to rescue a sick dog called 'Buddy' from a shelter and get him an operation to fix his heart blockage.

What I didn't know was that Patrick Strateman AKA Patrick Moseley, Carole Strateman and Amir Taaki had other plans for my money and would remove access to my account and keep my 52 bitcoins. I had not been following the various Bitcoinica thefts.

HOW YOU CAN HELP.

When you run into these three, in person, online, in jail, wherever - could you please remind them of the little dog who will die without his heart operation and ask them if they have handed Buddy his bitcoins back yet?

FAQ

Q. The little shit stole my coins too, help!!
A. California's seizure laws are your friend.

Q.Huh?
A. Bitcoins are property. Property in possession of a crook as a result of organized crime is subject to seizure and return to the rightful owner and the law says nothing about that rightful owner being a Yank.

Q. Organized crime. WTF?
A. Yes. But I am not about to rehearse the entire prosection in public so you'll have to take my word for it.

Q. Prosecution? How can I help?
A. Report the matter to your local police, get a crime number or whatever reference your jurisdiction has that proves a report has been made. Emphasize your 'property'. Use that word a lot. Keep a copy of that report.

Q. How will that help when the little shit is in San Francisco?
A. And his mom. You forgot his mom. What he lives with. In a few weeks you can ask your local police to forward a copy of your crime report to contact details I will provide.

Q. Why can't I do that right now?
A. You can. You can speak to Officer Gomez at Ingleside, but there are three people there dealing with a lot of fraud and a specialist investigator will be assigned to us shortly. I think we should all hold off on the paperwork in San Francisco till then, but file locally right now.

Q. I am coming late to this thread as I thought my coins were gone. Am I too late?
A. No. I will always leave a breadcrumb trail for you to follow. Even if Strateman sends me my bitcoins right now and I drop the complaint.

Q. Can you guarantee I will get my coins back?
A. No. But if you don't report it I can guarantee that you will never see your property again. If they still exist I think, in the end, you will get them back.

Q. What's the consolation prize if I don't?
A. You get to see Strateman and his mom, and that wanker Taaki go to jail.

Q. How much will all this cost?
A. As much or as little as you like. I intend to give evidence in person with my daughter, but there are other ways of introducing evidence. At some point you might need to swear in a document, get your signature witnessed etc.. These are minor expenses.

Q. Why didn't you join the lawsuit.
A. They saw me coming the once already.



- Alexandra and Buddy the Dog]



------



Hi Patrick, it has been days now and I've heard nothing. You know about the dog, right?

He hasn't got long. Soon his heart and brain will be permanently damaged.

Why couldn't you have just sent me a email long ago when you decided you wanted photo ID? Huh? If my dog dies because I am locked out of my Intersango account - well bitcoin scandals are ten a penny, but this is the sort of disgrace that follows a person around for life.

I promised to take care of him and get him the operation necessary to save his life. You've locked me out of my account, and vanished, so I can't do that. Then there is my daughter. She is six years old. She loves Buddy. She knows he is supposed to have the angioplasty because he is very sick and if he dies without having it, because you locked me out of my account with no warning whatsoever, then vanished, you can explain it to her.

Because I don't know how.

Then there is the shelter I got him from. I promised faithfully I would take care of that little dog and get him the treatment he needed. It was the reason they gave him to me and they take these things seriously.

Not looking forward to that call either, but I'm making it tomorrow. If you don't want to speak to me, you can speak to Mike instead.

I don't want to be a total dick, but have you considered the 'doggy heaven' one?  This is the kind of issue that people face every day and for all kinds of reasons.

This is not a comment on the culpability or general trustworthiness of Strateman.  I'd have no difficulty believing that he's completely untrustworthy.  He comes across as the worlds biggest douche on IRC, and is directly involved with some pretty massive monetary losses in the ecosystem over the years.

Hi Tv,

Well, I'm new to this children stuff, though I'd be inclined to tell her the truth.

Yeah, doggy heaven, sure, it is how exactly he got there I'm going to have a problem with. Anna knows we got the dog specifically to spend thousands on him and fix his heart. We could have had a fit dog. We chose that one because I knew there was a new operation that could fix him, and I knew no-one else was going to rescue him and spend all that money, and I knew that I had a small fortune in bitcoins I could use to do it.

I decided to get the dog for my daughter and show her how to solve these kinds of medical issues because major problem-solving is one of my teaching priorities, and medicine too should be taught just like English and Math I think.

Unfortunately Strateman swiped the money.

Yes, he did. See below.

There is plenty of time for her to get acquainted with pure evil when she is older. Six is a little young to see your dog killed by a sociopath, I'm thinking.

What's the alternative? Let her think I broke my promise to save her dog? There is a special seat in Hell reserved for people who break promises to children.


[Rest of this deleted as Patrick got the message and I don't want to cause innocent bystanders emotional trauma]

We got a message in return!

Metaphorically speaking, it said..

"I'll get you and your lil' dawg too!"


Patrick Strateman you slipped up.

Furthermore, on what planet do you think you can blame some oriental conman and expect the judge to believe you didn't plan the heist with him then flagrantly and openly steal someone's money, knowing you will cause the death of a little girl's dog?

I also know Judge Lee is not one to let, hmmm.. not sure how to say this without it sounding like I am accusing the Honorable Judge of something nefarious - which is not my intention - well let us say that I have been in many courtrooms over the decades, and not once have I ever seen an actual case of actual 'justice'. Many lawyers could sadly say the same.

If what I have heard about Judge Cynthia Lee is true, I think it is safe to say that Justice makes some regular appearances in her courtroom, jury or no jury.

It is just a shame the price of it is the life of my beautiful Buddy and the tears of a little girl.

Nothing will happen to Patrick Strateman  :'(

This makes me really sad to read. How much does the procedure cost? If only a couple hundred USE worth I could loan or try n help out with this. I love animals and reading this story breaks my heart.

Oh King, thank you Sweetie but its thousands of dollars. It is a very special balloon that goes in via a catheter then gets expanded. It has tiny, incredibly sharp blades that cut the obstruction and I don't think many are made and the ones that are, are made to a very high standard. Then a regular ballon goes in and all the time you have to make sure the heart isn't starved of blood for more than a few seconds. It is complicated, and it is dangerous, therefore expensive.

Then these dogs.. Well it is difficult to sedate them. Everything is ten times harder. You could save 50 dogs from the pound for what saving just this one would cost.

I will do what I can with beta blockers and anti-fibrotic herbs and keep the poor doggy as sleepy as I can - which is hard as he always wants to run round. Strateman will give me my money, it is just that in the absence of another member of his species, he has fixated on me to give him his ass kicking first.

And Tomato?

Stick around dude. Sometimes it takes a while, but I can assure you that something will indeed happen to Patrick Strateman. This little dog's death will be haunting him for the rest of his negligible, miserable life. He might not care right now, but perhaps one day as his ass rots in jail and he has a lot of time on his hands to think, he will eventually realize what it is he has really done and come to the saddest conclusion one can come to in life, that it is too late.

He once killed a little girl's dog out of spite and greed.

In case you missed that, Amir, it was me asking you to strap on a pair.

What actually happened?

What actually happened was an Intersango customer, me, having the nerve to ask to be let back into her account urgently when locked out of it without notice - and his Royal L33tness Patrick 'Sheldon Cooper' Strateman deciding the said customer hadn't been showing the required degree of deference for him to honor his actual social and legal obligations.

Wanting her bitcoins??? In a hurry?? Outrageous!

In his mind it looked like I was trying to tell him what to do, and he is showing me he will not be told what to do - by witholding access to bitcoins he knows I need to save my dog's life. He thinks killing a dog will prove what a big man he is. Plus he gets to keep my $10k and make a little girl cry.

Well, you wanted to know what happened. Just some greedy freak on a power trip.

And meanwhile Kuthrapali Taaki there, someone you would think would have some kind of control over either the server, or his business partner, thinks he is in hiding.

Bless.

I found Taaki in minutes, and Norman in an evening. I don't need to find Strateman, they have him already, and killing my little girl's pet out of what I can prove is spite - will guarantee the punitive damages awarded against him in the Bitcoinica case will be sufficient that he will now spend the rest of his life, effectively, as a slave.

If it wasn't for the loss of my precious Buddy, I'd say $10,000 to see that happen is a bargain.

From what I have seen of the evidence filed, there wasn't much proving Strateman's malicious intent towards his customers - although it is being specifically pleaded and some amusing evidence was snuck in. Unless they have a lot more in reserve it was a bit iffy though. There was a good chance the hacker story would have held up in front of the jury.

Not a snowball's chance of that if they see my support ticket screen shots and a few leaked emails.

Then a charming video of Buddy's eager little face running round the garden all happy and safe with the little girl who loves him..

..before having a pile of powder poured out in front of their eyes without a word.

That's how I'd play it. One minute watching a happy little dog, all bouncy, the next minute a pile of powdery dirt in front of them with no explanation, and gradually, one by one can you imagine the horror as each person realizes what the pile is?  

And then they turn to look at Strateman..

No big mystery to him. To him its ten thousand dollars.



Now, can anyone tell me, via i c e m a i d e n 0 7 a t g m a i l how they think Strateman is funding his legal defense? I am also interested in Donald Elliot Norman's birthplace.

According to Patrick's mother, the lawfirm she works at (in some admin/secretarial capacity) has offered its services to defend Patrick at a discount.  Patrick's mother is helping him with the bills.  In fact, when she asked plaintiffs in California to drop the case against Patrick, she also asked that Patrick be reimbursed for his legal fees.  Patrick may very well be playing the pauper while sitting on a gigantic pile of bitcoin, just waiting for the storm to blow over so he can cash out.  A lot of people have had their lives ruined by the antics of Amir, Donald and Patrick.  Unfortunately, the demonstrably insane tend to get off lightly.  Zhou Tong, who many still believe to have played a role in at least one of the Bitcoinica thefts has started another company taking bitcoin deposits.  Amir is back putting on conferences and has reengaged with the community.  People have forgotten.

Ah... that's the same Jamie Strateman?

I did wonder why telling the little toe-rag's mother didn't work this time. First time ever that failed.

Thank you!!!

And furthermore..

duh!

Here is me, supposedly a savant at remembering everything I read and I didn't notice the law firm's name was the same.

In my defense, I was never very good at nouns.

I'm going to sulk in the bath for the rest of the night now, in deep, deep shame..

I was thinking, I would be devastated by the loss of Buddy, but given the present value of Bitcoins, I am thinking many of you have lost just as much. Medical treatment for elderly relatives you should have been able to afford. Raising your children somewhere nice. Time off scratching a living to be with those you love.

Do I get the feeling you have all given up?? Bah! The Youth of today. No stamina, that's your problem. :)

Never give up. There is always a way. These little toe-rags slip up all the time and the fun is just about to begin.

You have all more than earned your fun.

This thread made me sad :( sorry to hear about your dog and the bullshit you are going through.

I hope you are right, that truth comes to light, justice is served, and Buddy is saved!

Some people in this world make me sick.  I hope karma sorts this guy out.

And there's this by Phinneaus Gage, which is something I've had in mind for a day or two..


Well yeah. And perhaps before.

I was having trouble deciding who I believed in less. A relic collecting Chinese multi-millionaire, a reclusive Japanese-named English-sounding mathematician who gifts his brainchild to the world then modestly and conveniently vanishes, or Santa?

IIRC, I've seen some evidence of Santa on Christmas mornings.

Perhaps, if I don't get my bitcoins any minute now, I shall go looking for Nakamoto-San, so desu ne?

Nakamoto-San, doko desu ka? Anata wa Icicle desu..

OK. He's real. And far too old and sensible to be involved in this.

Strateman, you need to actually open emails from your lawyer from time to time. Or get your mommy to open them for you. One of them contains yet another copy of my passport scan!

Buddy didn't have a good day.


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/i-c-i-c-l-e/image-4.jpg

I have an outraged and very upset Donald Norman in my inbox. We had some very nice social back and forth while he got around to asking for the screenshots. All of them mind. I wasn't to miss out a single one. It was most important I handed him all the evidence. When I sent screenshots of the support tickets he was all hurt, and bewildered, and stuff.

Yeah, and like the Bitcoinica customers - I know that feeling.

I shall spare his blushes, by posting only my reply, which is here instead of being sent to him as quite a few people need to hear this. He is quite upset I am calling Patrick a 'scammer and a thief' in this thread, he says.

Well, I'm tending more towards Big Sulking Baby actually, and 'dog killer'.

My reply..


-----------------------------------

First of all Donald, you should be aware that this is the second time this has happened.

Last time it took me three months to get back in my account.

This is why, when, quite unexpectedly, I could not log in to download my bitcoins, I was FRANTIC!

Three months again? Can't be done. And the only reason I got back in inside three months last time was because I said I would tell people's mums if I didn't get back in.

You must remember that I had no idea at all about what had been going on with Bitcoinica. I don't sit staring at my bitcoins like a lovestruck puppy. I only knew that my login or password had been changed on what was, as far as I knew, just a trading account. There was no error message either beyond 'login failed' so I thought I had been the victim of an ID theft.

As you can see, I let support (who I soon found out was a person called Patrick Strateman) know how urgent it was. As you can see by him closing the duplicate ticket that had a fuller explanation about the dog on it - Patrick SAW how urgent it was. If, as you are claiming Donald, Patrick managed to close the duplicate ticket and still not know about the dog..

HOW ON EARTH DID HE KNOW IT WAS A DUPLICATE TICKET UNLESS HE READ WHAT WAS WRITTEN ON IT?

I emailed Patrick at the support address and at his gmail address. Zilch. I told Patrick's Mom how urgent it was and got zip. I told Amir how urgent it was and he contacted Patrick's mom and still Diddly-Squat. I told Patrick's lawyer how urgent it was and Patrick didn't even open the bloody email.

Patrick sat on his Royal Behind. If that isn't a fuck you I don't know what is, and we all know he has form for it.

Yes. You are correct. I am sure he will be, or was, very surprised indeed to see how angry I am. That is what happens to people who go round thinking the rest of the planet should cover their avoidant posteriors for them. They are often surprised.

Not my fault.

I am tired of being treated like your lack of forethought is my fault. It is not my fault, it is not any of your customers' faults, and if you think you can go round locking people away from their own goods and chattels because you failed to see through Zhou 'ooh it seems the nasty widdle hacker deleted the cloud backup' 'ooh it seems we must have bought expensive bitcoins'Tong you can think again.

[Edited Nov to add - and now I think Patrick 'Steve_bobs' Strateman (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.385;wap2) might have been in on the hacks from the moment he realised Bitcoinica wasn't as profitable as Zhou Tong had promised, despite plainly hating him. This is why law enforcement was never called in.]

It isn't like the hack happened yesterday or last week. This is October, and you have had offers of help to sort it out on this very forum. Indeed I have a pretty good idea it wasn't a real hack at all and the coins were only taken to cover up the destruction of the customer records. Ask yourself why that might have been necessary. I'll tell you now I think it was it due to the delay in getting a certified copy of Strateman's passport and thus signing the contract. Someone saw you coming and expected to be well away by the time you found out about it.

Again, not my fault.

Donald, it is a universal principle in civilized society that you do not deprive people of their property unless a judge says you can. Patrick deprived me of mine when he locked me out of my account. He would have had any reasonable person's permission to do that for security purposes, but those permissions become null and void shortly after he gets or should have gotten the ID he requests. I told him it would be arriving that same day, which it did - and in any case he could have emailed me at any point in the past few weeks or months or years and said "Hey, I'd like some photo ID please" and he would have got it. He didn't have to lock me out of my account and leave me to find out for myself during a dire emergency then sit on his backside whistling Dixie.

And yes, I looked you up. Hunted you down, whatever. No need to be scared about it. I shall not tell anyone what I found or, more to the point, what I didn't find - but I FIND things Donald. How do you think I do it? I don't do it by pussyfooting around and certainly not when there is a life at stake. If Intersango was fit for the purpose, I wouldn't have had to find you, would I? And then you wouldn't be whining about how I went about doing it, would you?

You expect me to contact you via the usual routes? And how in heaven's name am I supposed to know what those are when I never heard of you before? You are not a rock star and I am not your groupie. For the record, I am a customer of a company you used to be a director of who has a dog that will die and a daughter who will be heartbroken if his Highness there doesn't honor the agreement he made with me.

Now please get over the feeling the rest of creation is supposed to even know who you are, let alone bail you all out. Send your customers their own bitcoins, and you will be surprised how fast everyone loses interest. If you feel you can't send them out yet, then get them into cold storage today. Then get help from trusted members of this forum with the processing. Who is going to sue someone with no money if 1) you have no money 2) your customers have 90% of what they were suing you for in the first place?

And this might come as news to you Donald, but Intersango's inability to organise a proverbial piss-up in a brewery is, oddly enough, not best solved by the customer 'applying for a loan' somewhere.

Ah more about Patrick Strateman and Amir. These people are sick and disgusting. Why is Amir being allowed into Bitcoin conferences? If I knew of a conference that let this guy in I would tell the entire community to shun the organizers.

Amir and Patrick have ruined so many lives in Bitcoin.

To anyone in Bitcoin that entertains, hangs out with or accepts either of these demons, please get lost! Understand these people are evil and need to get the message they are no longer welcome in this community.

To the OP, I doubt you will get anything from them, you are asking thieves, people with no ethics and only out for themselves for your property back. I am so sorry.

You all need to understand people like this, they will destroy a million lives just to better their own by 1%, people like this are a drain on society and we must reject them.

Amir apparently get welcomed back because he disappeared for a while and people forgot about his sins.

http://trilema.com/2012/amir-taaki-has-done-and-continues-to-do-huge-disservice-to-anyone-serious-involved-in-bitcoin/ (http://trilema.com/2012/amir-taaki-has-done-and-continues-to-do-huge-disservice-to-anyone-serious-involved-in-bitcoin/)

Donald,

[another email]

Oh do please define 'abusive' Donald - in the context of killing a little girl's pet.

What do you feel is the appropriate level of incandescence I should be displaying? How upset do you think a person should be feeling about losing a family member to some else's hissy fit? 'Mildly peeved'? 'Pretty upset'? Or 'Oh well that's less dog food to buy'?

Say if a polite email is a 'zero' and killing a family member is a 'ten', I should think getting irate and pointing out a few home truths on a forum is about a 'three', isn't it? I'm at about a three.

What number do you think Strateman is at? Shall we post a poll and vote on it?

You used the word 'abusive' four times in your email, and accuse me of abuse and do you know what I hear?

"People need to show some fucking respect".

No. People need to show some fucking bitcoins, Donald.

Wait, so because you put all your eggs in one basket and now it's come to bite you in the ass, somebody else is responsible for you not being able to afford care for your dog? Seems to me like your poor judgement is more to blame than anything else. This reminds me of all the victims of Pirate who "invested" in his 7% per week totally legit investment program. I think both parties share fairly equal portions of responsibility... one side through ill-intent, the other through reckless stupidity.

That being said, it does seem like Stateman is being a little bitch about this and could easily afford to accommodate you, even if on a one-off case. Seriously, 50 BTC or so seems like a pittance compared to what he's probably sitting on.  Patrick, if you're reading this, just return Icicle's Bitcoins if for no other reason than we don't have to see this damn thread being bumped every few hours, FFS.

I put a day's wages into it long ago, then when I noticed it would now be enough to save a very sick rescue dog I adopted him.

Not that it matters, because a breach of contract is a breach of contract, and contract law is the basis for all commerce.

And thank you. When even someone who thinks I'm an idiot is telling Strateman to get his shit together, it is certainly time for Strateman to get his shit together.

I think he is leaving it until after I announce the dog is dead. Then it will be "Whoops! I never saw your support ticket gosh I'm so sorry" - or at least that would have been the original plan. I can prove it's rubbish though, so he is pretty much backed into a corner now, and if, god forbid, the jury in Cartmell get to see Buddy's ashes piled up, his ass is toast, and so is everyone's bitcoins :(

Except four people's bitcoins.

I think there is a way out for him without losing face though. I'll think on it some more.

And now he's closed my support ticket. Still hasn't logged me in, but managed to take time out of his busy day to close my support ticket.

I guess he feels at this stage he has nothing to lose.

I dunno about that. I haven't lived in the US long, but I get the feeling a judge looks on a thief one way and a thief who is also a dog murdering bastard another.

No wonder Amir and Donald are going bonkers. 'Oh he's such a nice guy really' 'Oh he would never do that!'

Well he is doing that, isn't he? He also turned you both into fugitives (http://webaccess.sftc.org/minds_asp_pdf/Viewer/DownLoadDocument.asp?PGCNT=0).

icicle, this must be tough, but if all hope is lost in getting your bitcoins back, there is still hope.

I don't know what you're opinion is on this, but I'll tell you because I believe it.  My neighbors dog, Sam, had cancer and was scheduled to die within the next couple weeks.  I refused to accept that as the truth and instead believed to myself and to Sam that he was a healthy dog with no sickness.  Whenever I saw him I would envision Sam as a healthy dog, when I played guitar I would repeat lines about Sam being healthy.  I even had a dream I was petting him.  Shortly after, I hear his cancer has gone away and he's still with us to this day.

I'm not trying to guarantee or set expectations, but I want you to know it is possible he will be okay if you, I and everyone else views him as a healthy dog.  I will pray for him and send him my love, believing he is healthy.

If all else fails, one option is faith healing and it's more viable of an option than one would believe.

I hope your heart is open to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-J7cnUV28Q

Does buddy have a last name I can include in my meditation?

Hey, Dank, what a lovely message!

What can I say? I have seen some strange things in my time, and done plenty of them, though not, as I recall, this type of healing. I find I cannot control the visualization nor summon the subtlety required for tinkering on what I would assume is the quantum level?

So yes, certainly open to assistance from anyone who can provide it, and thank you! xxx

And I shall be getting my bitcoins. I see that as clearly as you can see a healthy dog. How hard people want to make it on themselves is between them and their Karma >:)

Please pet Buddy for me. He looks like a nice puppy :'(

I just did, and told him it was from you!

I was wondering... There is a certain amount of evidence ('Steve_bobs' anyone?) to suggest not every hack that obscured the disaster that was the takeover of Bitcoinica was legit.

The Bitcoin Consultancy's refusal to call in the police would presumably indicate the police would find something Strateman didn't want them to find. Zhou's 'playing the forum like a fiddle' would indicate he already knew Intersango were not going to call the police. Plus Strateman hates Zhou, and with a passion.

Strateman collects examples of Intersango vulnerabilities and fails to fix them, firehoses 511 bitcoins at random strangers and hangs about in his rivals' support channels on irc presumably looking for vulnerabilities -  and then there are lots of tiny forced transactions such as the guy who told me he had to smuggle his balance out 'one bitcoin at a time'!

And then, there is no business model, <ahem>.


I'm thinking the plan all along was to rob Bitcoinica, but Zhou got there first and maybe even caught someone in the act and did a deal with them?

That all sounds a bit fanciful to me, but it does make sense of the little oddities here and there. It also opens up a brand new option for the Bitcoinica victims. All of them, not just the ones who can afford to sue, and at better than $11 per bitcoin.

A criminal prosecution against Strateman for Grand Theft, with a request for asset forfeiture, then everyone has a 30 day window to put in claims in for the return of their actual bitcoins.

Pet buddy for me too, if you would. :)

Send him the good vibes.

I will be meditating for Buddy throughout the next week or so, I hope you can do the same (OP, anybody).  Just believe he is a healthy dog.

Honestly though Strateman is probably your target number one now, it is probably best to consider all of the Intersango failure crew together as responsible.

I wonder if there will be a Bitcoin hell for these sorts.

More hugs for Buddy?? Thank you!! xxx

I told my eldest daughter (11) what was going on yesterday. She has several ideas on what to do. All of them illegal and most of them painful, although I must say they would result in our bitcoins being returned to us.

In this instance it does seem better to me to go after Strateman, as he is the one I have the bulk of the evidence on, and although there is now a police report on both Taaki and Strateman in the UK I doubt if much will happen to Taaki until he is wanted by the US. That should come in time, but frankly I'm thinking the main reason people want to see all three banged up is they have given up on getting their bitcoins back!

Youngsters! Just can't take the pace...!

I have not given up. Not for me, not for everyone else. I find things. I am very good at finding things. Right now I am on the hunt for an equitable solution. 2000 years of western civilization. The solution should be there somewhere.

Patrick is a smart cookie. I wonder if he has any ideas?


Hahahaha! Really not keen on that, is he? 'Let me go free or I'll keep the bitcoins'. Well, you did and you still don't have your bitcoins and all I see for the Bitcoinicaz, on the far far distant horizon, is a payout of $11 per bitcoin on whatever is left after the Cartmell case.

Unacceptable.

Certainly when, in California, the state can prosecute at its own expense and then during asset seizure - which includes the profits of criminal activity as well as any property stolen - we each put in a claim for the return of our bitcoins. The state, or the federal authorities I presume (when they see how much there is to be seized) can keep whatever is unclaimed.

So I am pursuing criminal charges, and there is paperwork to be done - don't expect much action for a couple of weeks, but once there is an arrest related to Intersango, I should think further evidence from the Bitcoinica customers could be added in to the complaint.

I don't know what I'm going to do about justice for Buddy. I don't want compensation if it is from stolen funds :/ and I wake up every morning feeling sick as it is - then I remember the guy or girl who had 24 thousand bitcoins stolen. It doesn't make me feel any better, but it makes me feel less alone.

Ah. I know what to do!

If Strateman is locked up at some point in the future and we all get our bitcoins back, I would ask that everyone donate a bitcoin or two to their local dog shelter, in memory of a happy little dog called Buddy, and the girl who once loved him.


Same hell they all go to. Called 'watching someone else spend the ill-gotten you thought you'd made away with' :)

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/i-c-i-c-l-e/image-5.jpg

Won't hand over the passwords except as part of 'settlement negotiations' instead?

Huh?

He wants to be paid for handing over the passwords to other people's missing money? Money wot isn't his.

Money wot isn't the liquidator's either, at $11 per bitcoin :/

Why on earth not just have him arrested for theft, have everything seized, put in a claim for your actual property. Actual bitcoins. Sue him later.

Cheaper for everyone, seeing as the state prosecutes - and now he's pinched my bitcoins as well - not as hard to prove as it once might have been.

Let's see if he want to open 'settlement negotiations' with a judge who can throw his ass in jail for obstructing seizure.

Eleven dollars a bitcoin. No wonder there was no great enthusiasm to throw good money after bad.

For god's sake people. Just call the police. If you are in the states, the FBI Computer crimes division, the UK has something of the same sort. They would love another example of bitcoin not being above the law. So give them a great opportunity to be useful.

It is a question of efficient use of energy. Our ducks need to be in a row first.

Imagine each of the victims has 10% of the evidence, and like good little citizens they go to the nearest Mr Policeman and tell him.

Result? Nothing. The energy is too scattered.

Yet, between us, we likely have all the evidence necessary to get him and his accomplices put away for a long time. It is a question of collecting it all and collating it.

A little extra effort at the start, a little focus, plus a little follow-through, and I think you will be surprised what can be achieved.

How's the dog? Does he have much time left?
This thread breaks my heart but you can't count on the empathy of criminals.

I'm not convinced that that is what is happening here.  This thread has had a creepy and weird feeling to me from the get-go.  I'd be uncomfortable generally to have stolen anything from anybody, but especially so in Bitcoin-land, and even more so in the various instances of loss that the Bitcoin Consultancy guys have been involved in.

Beautiful man, that's how the law of attraction works.
icicle just believe in a thought/incident that you want to happen with so much faith that you can imagine and video of it happening in your mind. (You get me right?)

Your pet is absolutely fit I saw the video, you better believe that too, and take him out for long walks twice a day, especially early in the morning.

TV, I think, what you are sensing here is my own sense of disbelief too. I don't even believe it and I am 49 years old and seen some very strange things in my time. I'm the one it happened to and I wake up with that creepy feeling. Also I'm changing my mind. I thought it was control-freakery behind this, but now I'm tending towards my bitcoins having been stolen long before I tried to retrieve them. He hasn't said anything because what can he say?

He didn't expect an English woman who bought coins in 2011 to try getting them back all of a sudden in 2013? Maybe that's it. He didn't think they would be missed. That's my current best guess. He has a dog himself and refuses to travel abroad because of it.

Now I know psychopaths can display a mawkish sentimentality towards kittens etc. that fills the gap where real empathy should be, but still. A dog lover who won't leave his own dog but will kill mine? Something is wrong with this picture, I quite agree.

Something has happened. Something he can't talk about. If he hasn't pinched the coins there's an Unknown Unknown going on.

Strateman, if there is something I need to know and you can't tell me - there are email services that send self-destructing read-once emails. Whatever you want to tell me will never be told to another living soul and if I think the reason is plausible and a good one, this thread will vanish. You may also send such a communication via a third party.


Tulak,

Buddy looks fine to me again. He is sleeping at my feet right now.

[Anyone doing healing visualizations on Buddy, skip the rest of this message!]

The vet gave him pills to slow his heart and I monitor his heartrate a few times a day. It is getting worn out though and it is already human-sized.

Imagine a circle of garden hose with a pump circulating the water. Now imagine someone treads on the hose just as it exits the pump. It is a strain on the pump and there is variously too much and too little water in different places. You can reduce the pressure using vasodilators (increasing the diameters of the pipe away from the pump) but these can lead to a sudden fatal drop in volume at the pump itself. It needs the water as there is fuel in it.

The drugs will extend his lifespan, by slowing the pump, but the lack of flow and increased pressure on the chambers in his heart cause enlargement. Enlargement means you can pump more volume, but after a while the elasticity of the cells is lost due to the constant strain they have been under for months and months so that contractions are weaker. This is the change from 'compensated' to 'decompensated' heart failure. It is the decompensated (inelastic) stage that kills. I should imagine you can detect decompensation via comparing systolic and diastolic pressure readings, but I haven't had the vet do that yet as there isn't anything we can do about it anyway except get him an angioplasty.

I don't know how much time he has left. These dogs simply keel over dead unexpectedly. Untreated, by age two I think. Sometimes you can revive them, sometimes not. He has been revived once.  I do know if the operation is to be performed, it should be done before he is two years old and he is about at two years now. I think if it is not performed, the accumulated damage renders it pointless anyway. I have heard of these dogs living several years on medication and the world record holder (so far as I know of) lived five years longer than other dogs, but Buddy has such a severe constriction you can take his heart-rate just by sitting next to him, it is so loud, and sounds like a washing machine. It is a grade six murmur. The scale doesn't go any higher.

He is a lively little thing though. In fact, I am going to go hunt for some doggy tranquilizers. It should give him extra time.

Walks? Ajax.. The little so-an-so escaped for the 15th time at Halloween! The whole family is getting fitter with these 'walks' -or as I prefer to think of them 'forced marches' - around the neighborhood :)

One time it was 6 am in the middle of the sort of thunderstorm you only see in Georgia. I was barefoot, half-dressed, soaked and freezing and everyone else had given up and gone home while I'm still tracking him through woods and shit with critters in it I've never even seen before, and snakes, then through every back yard (way for the crazy English lady to meet her neighbors for the first time) while Herbert (his Bad Dog name) was having quite the adventure.

You should see this dog move. He flies!

Those days are over though before I'm the one dropping dead of heart failure. He has an electronic tracker now. You creep up, grab him, job done and back to bed.

Well make that a habit and take him out for long walks twice a day if you want him to live happier and longer. I suspect heart blockage might be due to less physical activity of Buddy.  
Also you should learn "Reiki" from a local practitioner and heal him with it by touching him with your hands half to one hour daily.

Looks to me like the guy is just more comfortable maintaining control of other people's BTC rather than giving the control up to either the rightful owner or anyone else.  I guess he just wants to keep them safe and protected.  I mean even a rightful owner can make mistakes and lose control of their own BTC and that would be bad.  Strateman is a knowledgeable and skilled security professional so it probably makes more sense that he retains control of things.  In his mind.

Haha! I see where you are going with this.

Hey, Strateman said somewhere that 'if something happened to him' a couple of other people had access to the wallet backup, or something like that. Might have been talking about Bitcoinica.

Does 'something' include going bonkers?

Hacking attempt on my account. A successful one.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=331881.msg3582412#msg3582412

Guys and girls,

I'm doing everything I can think of here, asking him, telling him, contacting his colleagues, relatives, his lawyer, and asking them too. The FBI, and talking to the police again today.

A policewoman yesterday said "you need to throw his ass in jail, girl!" That was encouraging :)

Yet I might not have thought of everything, and I don't have much time to get this done.

I am thinking of putting a bounty on the safe return of my bitcoins to a wallet address I specify. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Some thoughts.
Stop posting and just deal with your shit, we dont care.

My advice:  Try to avoid becoming collateral damage in tussles between the guy and his potentially numerous adversaries as the years roll on.  Or worse yet, a patsy.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=217635.msg2341595#msg2341595

Over three bitcoins.

Oh I see what you mean. I'm not advocating violence of course, but someone owed their share of that missing $50,000,000 might decide to take a little direct action of their own and not be too diplomatic about it. I don't want to be getting the blame for that, so the bounty is off. Which is a shame, because if someone had been able to politely persuade him to hand back what isn't his, and save a young dog, they would have earned it.

Which leads us back to jail time. Perhaps, if he hands over a few passwords, he'll get less of it? Mitigating behavior is taken into account in sentencing I think. Or it is where I come from and our two systems are similar. A forfeiture order would do it as well, but then of course he would be sat in jail for who knows how long on contempt of court before handing over the passwords. Quite a pickle :/

It takes so long! If Buddy is even alive by then his heart will be so damaged the operation will be pointless.

I wonder how fast this could come to trial? I'll ask the fraud guy from the police.

Sorry to hear of your loss ob BTC and illness of your cute little dog.
I thought more of Amir, more then being a greedy thief anyway.  All the best with you efforts to get you coins back.

Well, my bitcoins will be back.

Yeah, Amir is the most likeable person I'm ever going to have arrested. I mean, I read what he says and I think 'right on man!' Then I remember what his refusal to stand up to Strateman is costing one little dog.

That is the problem with popular, highly sociable people. No quality control.

The idiots tend to be likeable until they make you head desk.

Sorry about your dog. I'm powerless to help here. If it's any consolation, I spent this summer going through a lot of hardship like cold and sickness due to lack of money. Patrick has no reason to steal and he's not like that.

lies

How's mr. healthydog buddy doin? :)

Amir, nice to see you. Now don't you have access to a backup database of Intersango if anything happens to your friend Patrick?

Does insanity count?

And Patrick is SO like that. The pair of you are. You think we don't know where the 'crowd-funding' is coming from for your new ventures next year?

Strateman stole my bitcoins, you helped him. You are keeping your head down and protecting Strateman because you don't yet have your payout. But there isn't going to be any payout. After they've done with him, the Americans will be requesting your presence next.

If I were you, I'd hand over my bitcoins then I'd run and hide down a deep dark hole knowing I can find you anyway. If I could find Norman hiding out in Vienna and Belgrade I can find you, and if you think that doesn't include East London squats, dude, I've gigged in most of them.

Right now, all you've got is Special Branch up your ass you dog murdering bastard. It is going to get so very very much worse, after extradition.

Dank, he is hanging in there, now the other dog has had an embolism and the oxygen starvation has killed off a lot of his spinal cord, between sorting that out and dealing with the police here, I have my hands full! The police thing is almost on autopilot now, but the medical stuff is what is taking up my time. It is probably best if I don't post much about what is going on anyway, for legal reasons, but everyone who has had their coins stolen can rest assured I'm on it, and won't be off it again until an optimal solution has been obtained.

What I am wondering - no reason but medical curiosity really, is how psychopaths find each other like this to collaborate in their evil schemes. Is there a club where they get together? Some secret handshake? Most of the serious villains I've known have simply grown up in the family business, but Strateman, Norman and Taaki?? What unholy alignment of planets gathered those three under the same roof/IRC channel at the same time?

Kiddy fiddlers have forums and websites and before that, underground printed mail-shots. How did these three each know, upon meeting, they had met another psychopath?

And yes Amir, you are a psychopath. The most classic of the three. The charm is studied. It is an important part of the act. Keep it up honeypie, it'll help no end where you're going.

So will the KY I'll send you.

I have to say the same. I had some bitcoins in my intersango account and recently withdrew them without any issue.

For how long did you wait? And how recent you asked for an withdraw? My last successful withdraw was made on 02 June 2013, and that was a fast one. This one made about 10 days ago was still waiting, and support request I waited for reply for a few days too. MtGox's cash withdraw actually takes much longer, but MtGox is fast in replying support tickets. I know compare cash withdraw with bitcoin withdraw is a bit unfair, bitcoin withdraws are usually expected to be faster.

I often heard passionate discussion of not being able to withdraw, from this and that service provider, but the posters don't often come back to explain if he get the withdraw after a longer wait (not referring to this very thread). It is a good community service to just tell people how long does it take for the withdraw to finish, or even if the poster didn't get the withdraw finished in many month, he perhaps can still tell us once a month that he still didn't get it.


You mentioned Intersango is run by one person and he is also a dev, are you referring to Patrick Strateman and do you mean that he is a developer too? I know this subject has his name in the title but many other names of Intersango appeared during discussion too.

So the hot wallet used to be used for 1-coin withdraw? That's not the case now. Right now hotwallet is used if you withdraw 0.01BTC. That means you need to smuggle 5200 times for your 52 coins - not practical.  (Edit: 2 day after my post, even 0.01 can't be smuggled. I hope it is not because of my post.)

I think hot-wallet is intended for paying your meals directly from intersango accounts - a common need for those who don't have his/her own wallet software installed in his mobile phone - and he/designers of intersango intends that non-trivial withdraws by hot-wallet being impractical. (Edit: now it's not possible to use hotwallet even for 0.01BTC, so, hotwellet isn't for paying meals to the waiter as I thought it was for. It is perhaps invented for their need (instead of for the customers'), to save staff's time, or if there is no staff, CEO's time.)

You may think writing a software to do the smuggling but that hole is blocked: api allows minimum 0.1 withdraw hence not through hot wallet.

(Edit: Did a google search. Seems no one has reported having communicated with anyone from Intersango for a month. The last time I got response from a support ticket was 27th Dec - more then 3 weeks ago. Personal email unanswered. Did they/he cease communicating with customers?)


"firehose" as verb is unusal to us who do not live in the U.S. and dictionaries couldn't help. It seems a local slang. I assume you meant that he gives 511 bitcoins randomly to strangers, whic along isn't something to be accused of if it is his money. Perhaps there are background story tersely omitted?

(Edit: ----------------
A google search showed that Intersango initially opensourced their trade platform software. So there perhaps was a time when it was good and had the interest of the public in their mind. Some people in this thread commented positively seems to know more than what they already said (while the bad comments has said theirs all), please kindly share some information with the people. Intersang has been stranger and stranger. What should customers, who still didn't abandon it after all last years' mischances and bad news, do with their balance, now?

Records shows they/he did read discussion about them in bitcointalk.org, at least before July 2013. It is perhaps a bad idea to ask my quesiton here, because if it is true that Intersango people are emotional, they/he would consider everyone who posted in this thread mean to increase his/theirs image as dog killer, and, in his/their personal feeling, fail to act professionally. I suggest if your post is not intended only to accuse or press Intersango, then kindly follow a new thread I opened:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=414764

You have had a response within the past month?

I am still locked out of my account. Have been since October. The police are dealing with it and my dog sleeps all day.

It would appear his mother is up to her ears in this.

Waited 3-4 days, it was beginning of December.

Interesting. All complaints on https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=414764.msg4508190 are around early January...

Just checking in to say things are moving along.

Hope we can get Taaki arrested too.

Checking in again to say the first message in this thread has been updated, now would be a good time to file police reports in your own country or state (don't worry Brits... You can do it by post or email).

Get a copy, get a crime number or other reference and a contact name at your police station. Save these. You will need them in a month.

You mentioned Officer Gomez at Ingleside, and if someone is assigned to your case you will update. Do you think we should write to Officer Gomez now, or wait a bit till an office is assigned? I assume this Officer Gomez is in charge of the area around which Patrick lives, correct?



Why you think filing the case in hometown helps? Each police office would end up only one victim on the record. I know perfectly well what will happen if I file a case in my own country (China) police: nothing. Did you consider filing the case in U.K. where the business is registered? There is a gentleman who offer to check if this can be done:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=414764.0;all

And do you think of confronting Patrick personally, so he has to answer a question or two? Since it is a matter of life and death a confornation is worth it. He may not say much, but sometimes you know things by checking what is not there.  Many are not living in the U.S. like you to have the convenience of visiting him.

>You mentioned Officer Gomez at Ingleside, and if someone is assigned to your case you will update.

When.

>Do you think we should write to Officer Gomez now, or wait a bit till an office is assigned?

Still wait.

>I assume this Officer Gomez is in charge of the area around which Patrick lives, correct?

One of the officers, yes.

>Why you think filing the case in hometown helps?

Because it is part of the proceedure in North America.

>Did you consider filing the case in U.K. where the business is registered?

Already filed, but nothing much will happen to anyone in the UK. The police there are not educated. Its a few weeks training and off you go. The UK, in fact, is a very good place to be setting up frauds or indeed, committing any kind of crime - and if you want to be even more certain of getting away with it you join the police first.

>And do you think of confronting Patrick personally, so he has to answer a question or two? Since it is a matter of life and death a confornation is worth it. He may not say much, but sometimes you know things by checking what is not there.  Many are not living in the U.S. like you to have the convenience of visiting him.

Yeah, the problem with this is it then introduces a grey area in court about how reasonable the accusers are. This is a greedy murderous thief who has gambled away Buddy's life. He is going down for the rest of his and I don't want to do anything to endanger that.

Talking of danger, there will be several people who would like to see Strateman strung up from the nearest lamppost, probably several more than that if they suspect him of the Mt Gox theft - and he has been known to sit in the support channels of his rivals looking for vulnerabilities, plus there was no love lost there, plus as I recall they were hanging on to 'his' stolen millions. Whether he did it or not he makes a good patsy.

So this is not someone who can simply walk to the store for a pint of milk. He or his mother can quite reasonably assume anyone approaching them mentioning bitcoins is going to start pulling out fingernails and we already know Strateman is capable of killing. Plus what do they reasonably have to lose? They are already looking at life in prison. I wouldn't recommend approaching these murderous little fucks as much for your own safety as anything else.

So, I already filed LOCALLY, in Georgia in November. That case was forwarded, as per American police procedure, to Officer Gomez at Ingleside in San Francisco, California (a different state than Georgia). In a short while a specialist fraud investigator will be on the case. At this point it would be handy if there were police reports already filed LOCALLY, ready to be forwarded, about more than one of their scams so we can use the organized crime process and recover whatever we are able to.

Once Strateman realised I was expecting more than 50 bitcoins he refused to communicate further. Emails to his lawyer are read, and passed on, but he ignores these too. I'm not going to have better luck confronting him in the street and the chances of me resisting the urge to plaster the little shit all over the pavement, thereby destroying the case, are minimal.

He is the one going to be in a tiny cell, with no computer, staring through the bars on the window all day, if he is lucky enough to have a window, while being chased through his dreams by a little golden dog every night, for the rest of his life. Not me.

Unless I get my bitcoins. Right now.

I have tried filing a report, about the 12.4 BTC still owed to me by intersango, with the police in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The police however says they can't file it, as this case relates to the agreement between me and the company. Hence this is a civil case and is not related to criminal law. The only thing they did was they told me to get a lawyer and sue the company. Perhaps you would have any advise on this, Icicle?

Btw, I am the guy that zhangweiwu spoke of. I have contacts in London and could travel there personally relatively easily, if this would contribute/achieve something, however I understand now from your last post that the case has already been filed in the UK? Please let me know if you think I can mean something in progressing this matter.

Hope Buddy is still doing ok, considering..

icicle: I will repeat my case to any police officer who allowed you to file a case, once their contact method is known. I would like to inform the U.K. police officer of our similar stories if they had one assigned to your case. I feel many others would do the same, as you already know, there are many who reported unable to withdraw from Intersango. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=414764.msg5495784)

And by 'confrontation' I don't mean to tie him to a lamppost (although that seems to work in China - too many population for police to care about such trivil fights, and I was innocently beaten on the street before, police didn't care). English is my second language so I perhaps wasn't clear. A few questions like "Do you still have everybody's coins" and "Are you still going to run the company" may reveal something. Sometimes even a good look at him serves some purpose, e.g. if he avoids eye contact, or if he was found drinking the days off. I don't know U.S. law but confrontation in the sense of self-introduction and asking questions seems common in U.S. movies, although I am not sure if taping the process is legal or not.

Since you found his mom as well, did you try to reach her? I mean, I won't assume she knows everything or is part of the game, but: I have been oversea once, and had a dispute with a local, and a text message asking the father for help solved it instantly when the police can't - the father doesn't even speak English nor my language. Admittedly that was a smaller dispute, and the local wasn't a bad guy, just someone in such a predicament hard to afford to let go that money, unfortunately it was the same to me, or I'd love to spare him of the embarrassment - I know this story may splash a culture shock.

Intersango website has now become unreachable for me...

Confirms, it is down for me from China too. We can find some pattern in this. MtGox stoped withdraw 2 weeks before the site went offline. The pattern means, if your exchange is stopping withdraw, you should panic:)

Hi Guys,

Patrick and Amir stole 1788 btc of me. Trough the Intersango site,
I worked hard for that money all my life.
Is there anybody out there who has some info.
I know Amir is still a free man, blaming it all on Patrick.
Will refresh his memory soon.

TTysoon.

Hi! Its Icicle. My previous account has been hacked or diverted or something. Recovery passwords do not arrive anyway.

So sorry to hear there are other people missing large amounts. I hope it will be of some comfort to know these people will go to jail. If there are any funds left that weren't pissed up a wall at $12 per bitcoin, we will find them.

Here is where we are with the police. They need to know for CERTAIN that the Patrick And Carole Strateman living in San Francisco are the same Stratemans involved in the theft of your bitcoins.

With this in mind, the police have been looking at photographs online but there are only side views of Patrick Strateman in public, so it is difficult to confirm his identity.

Does anyone know where there is a shot of Strateman face on?

It might seem like a trivial thing, but to a police officer in the US, it is considered good manners to be absolutely sure of the identification. They do, after all, go storming into other people's houses, with guns.

If you can help positively identify Strateman or if your coins are missing too, please phone..

The phone number is (415) 553-1521, Our SFPD case number (crime number) is 149 000 541 and you should ask for Sgt. McPherson.

Feel free to phone even if the police in your country want to call it a civil case because they are idle bastards. This is not a civil contract dispute, it is a civil contract dispute AS WELL.

I see no reason why recovered bitcoins should be denied to their rightful owners simply because the police in your own country would not take a report.

Incidentally, I have had success by writing to police headquarters to report crimes such as this then asking for a crime number. The people at headquarters tend to be more intelligent. The people on front desks in random locations[1] tend to abuse every bit of power they can get, and be too thick to know what their actual powers are, and not want to do any actual work. It helps if you are ill, or disabled and 'can't get to the police station'.

[1] by 'random locations' I am mostly thinking about the United Kingdom. So far, 90% of US police have surprised me by knowing what they are doing. In the UK, the reason they don't have guns is because they'd shoot their own feet off before you could say "time for a tea break".

I live near San Francisco. Do you have actual addresses for these pricks?

I'll gather whatever info you need.

Edited. Thank you Koshgel and Tomatocage!

I'll PM him the address, Icicle2.

Edit: PM has been sent.

Um, being the suspicious sort, I have just got to wondering how come my password doesn't work and how come the resend thing didn't work. Perhaps the board is a bit broken.

But perhaps there is a hack. It should go without saying, but I shall say it anyway.

If anyone pretending to be me asks you for money to recover your bitcoins, it is a scam. I shall not be asking you for money.

Zhangweiwu,

>And by 'confrontation' I don't mean to tie him to a lamppost (although that seems to work in China - too many population for police to care about such trivil fights, and I was innocently beaten on the street before, police didn't care). English is my second language so I perhaps wasn't clear. A few questions like "Do you still have everybody's coins" and "Are you still going to run the company" may reveal something. Sometimes even a good look at him serves some purpose, e.g. if he avoids eye contact, or if he was found drinking the days off. I don't know U.S. law but confrontation in the sense of self-introduction and asking questions seems common in U.S. movies, although I am not sure if taping the process is legal or not.

I know exactly what you mean :) you can tell a lot about emotion by facial expression. I got tested for it once at UCL while they were examining me for Prosopagnosia. I scored 100%. I mixed up Boy George with Elizabeth Taylor, and Einstein with Lenin, so I am face-blind, but I can tell what someone is thinking - just not who they are! :)

The law in the US about surveillance varies from state to state, though generally outside in the street, someone will have no 'expectation of privacy' so I should think you could film what you want so long as you aren't using a massive telephoto lens to peek into their house. Indoors you often have to tell them about film, though in my state not about audio recording, so long as you are being recorded too.

Still, judges don't like sneaking around.

Received the address. Thank you.

This is Strateman's address? Is there one for Amir?

I'm not going to beat it him up because I'll get charged for assault but I will take whatever pictures and confront him with questions if you'd like. Let me know.




Edit: Apparently hes been doxed

http://pastebin.com/kXRRAG4t

Amir is in the UK. He is sometimes in Kent, and sometimes at various squats in London. I can find him if we have to, but it would be best to wait till the last minute. I shall have to call in some favors there and we will only get one chance at it, so perhaps it is best to wait. Then Strateman will blame Taaki to get himself a shorter sentence, hoping Taaki can't be found.

Heh.

Koshgel, i would be interested to know what his face looks like when he is asked "did you spend our bitcoins?" And "are our bitcoins safe?" Stuff with a yes/no answer - to do with the fate of our property.

If you could film that, I'll tell you if the little bugger is lying or not.

I suspect Strateman is on the Autism spectrum, like me. If so, he might not go out much unless to walk his dog, so it might be that you'll end up asking Carole/Jamie his mum, instead. He lives with her. She is like the Strateman Whisperer, however as she has ignored all my attempts to find out what is going on, and the house was put in a trust, she is possibly in on the whole scam. This makes her a useful interviewee.

My feeling is that Strateman still has most, if not all of our coins, and has had them so long he feels they belong to him. Think that little creature, whose name I forget, from Lord of the Rings. He will give them back, but not one microsecond before he has to.

See the message on Intersango.com?

"We're still here...

Funds will be returned in an orderly fashion"

Classic Strateman.

If you haven't had your funds yet, it is your own fault, see? You must have been disorderly. You haven't kissed his Imperial Stratenesses' ring enough.

Well, if a little girl pleading for the life of her dog didn't make an impression, then nothing will. Buddy's predicament has at least let us all know where we stand. At the mercy of a sociopath. You don't get many of those on the Autism spectrum.

He either hands over the coins, or his ring will shortly be getting all the attention it can handle :)

I see. I'll be in San Francisco during the weekend and will scope out the location.  Many of my drinking buddies go to law school in San Francisco, so I'll ask them what's the best way to pursue legal action against this asshole.

Are there any photos of him so I can be sure I have the right person?

And you might find this helpful..

http://osrc.dfm.io/pstratem/

I ask you.. What self-respecting Autie works best in daylight??

Ask your lawyery friends about seizure laws, and let them know this isn't Stratemans first heist. I'm not interested in Tort and Contract as he is already facing a lawsuit for that. I just want my stuff returned, which is criminal law and happens when there is more than one person, indulging in a repeated pattern of criminality.

Actually, I'm wondering if putting the house in trust was enough to protect it. Can you ask about that?

Thank you




Interesting info.

I'll ask them and have answers to you by hopefully latest Sunday

Some preliminary information after talking with my friend. Keep in mind he is a student and this information is for educational purposes. 

Based on information posted here by the SEC:

http://investor.gov/news-alerts/investor-alerts/investor-alert-bitcoin-other-virtual-currency-related-investments#.U2xiDfldU4M (http://investor.gov/news-alerts/investor-alerts/investor-alert-bitcoin-other-virtual-currency-related-investments#.U2xiDfldU4M)

"Bitcoin has been described as a decentralized, peer-to-peer virtual currency that is used like money – it can be exchanged for traditional currencies such as the U.S. dollar, or used to purchase goods or services, usually online"

and

"IRS treats Bitcoin as property. The IRS recently issued guidance stating that it will treat virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, as property for federal tax purposes. As a result, general tax principles that apply to property transactions apply to transactions using virtual currency"

I'm interpreting this as Bitcoin being treated the same way stocks would be aka securities.

Since I wasn't personally injured or affected by this incident, I can't file a civil suit against Patrick Strateman. I highly encourage anybody (the more the better) to contact a lawyer knowledgeable about securities fraud in California. (I can help find the correct lawyer for this if you'd like).  The large sum of money stolen along with the fact that Bitcoin is new ground for law can make this an extremely attractive case for the right lawyer.  If you live out of state but still in the US, you can still file a civil suit locally and since it's across state lines, there will be federal investigation.

I see that icicle posted information about filing a police report in San Francisco. I highly encourage this as well.  I can file a police report but they will ask me how I was affected and why those that were affected aren't filling reports. I will still file one to attract more attention to him. The more people file police reports against him, the better. The FBI will get involved.

I will still scope out his location and attempt to ask him some questions, but I feel a civil suit is the best method to retrieving everybody's coins.

Just spoke to the police in San Francisco. Sgt. McPherson is very worried that he doesn't have jurisdiction. This issue must have come up in the Bitcoinica case too. Does anyone know what the judge had to say about it?


Edited to add..

No worries, found what I needed.

I know Rodger Ver got a threatening letter most likely from Strateman. Anyone else get one?

Anyone else have a sample of his or his mother's handwriting?