Bitcoin Forum

http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2014/pr0424_01.html

So is this where todays dip is coming from?

Wow, they already sold that.  It's funny, I wonder how they sold the BTC for dollars and received the dollars.  It's so hard for US citizens to do that , I wonder what service they used.

No tx or anything, seems fake news.

Remember that there is a lot fake news!
People want you to panic sell so they could buy cheap coins.

redonkolous! Did you even click on the link? So the "United States Department of Justice" is scamming you to drive the bitcoin price down? Thank you, made my day :)

No, it's China as usual:

www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-drops-40-following-reports-new-pboc-warnings/

PBOC is really a major pain in all of our assholes.

Well, address is still full.
https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX

again: did you even read the text? It's a different case, related to SR, but a different person, just read it!

It's from yesterday, wasn't yet posted anywhere here on bitcointalk so I just shared the news. Got it from deepdotweb, but they only copypasted the same text.

And as Jcw188 already noted, the interesting part is that they say they have already cashed out.

Justice.gov

I think it checks out.

found more: http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2014/pr0424_01a.pdf

Sadly it doesn't clear things up, in this document they just mention the 3 million USD.

It's hard for an US citizen to exchange BTC for fiat and cash out? What are you talking about?
It's not hard at all. You could use bitstamp for example and have the money in your pocket in a few days.

If true, it's Bullish good news, since they will not be dumping that $3Million in the future.  :)

Whats with concerns about price. Imo btc price is next to irrelevant.  If it goes down people can mine diff sha coins and prop them. Else they may be stuck with asic whose ROI is tiny :D

I do not understand how this was legal, considering he has not been tried and found guilty yet.

why do they always have to go after the non-pot sellers.

meth can be just as bad as pot, if not more.  what we NEED to go after are the caffeine users

Taking paranoia to a new level! :P

reading through it, i still wonder how did they trace the guy, and then i come up with 2 theories

1) the florida guy/BTCMaster gave up his supplier for a lesser sentence
2) the netherlands guy had a prior criminal record and they tested fingerprints on the packages against the netherlands police database, as the postage stamp showed it came from the netherlands

i know bitcoin is great but will all the stupid people doing illegal activities atleast stop doing illegal stuff, or try a little harder to not get caught, as your giving bitcoin the bad name that people have been trying to shake off the last few years

Good.  Ihope the government cashes out every bitcoin they ever seize.  why would you want a large proportion of coins i nthe nads of teh fed?

My guess is Second Market who seems to have an insatiable appetite for Bitcoin, is based in the US and regulated.

Not irrelevent, we need to keep it under 1,000 for as long as possible. If it goes up too quickly, it could be dangerous. The transition process from fiat to crypto must be slow and careful, keeping things as equal as possible.

The transition must be orderly, carefully-paced. Not a mad rush as the whole world realizes whats happening at the same time - entire national economies could get trampled! This is a very serious issue!

Why do you consider that an issue? It's about time things were shaken up a little.

Please don't frame it in a way that potentially blames BTC.
The source of danger is that fiat will be collapsing (with or without crypto), and BTC can save many people's wealth.  :)

We didn't start the fire! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g

You may be right!  :D
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCtC-LoOvqs

Its not hard taking money out...send it to btc-e and youre set.

Haha and a Billy Joel meme is born

The gov should be sued.  They should be forced to publicly auction off all BTC in order to get the taxpayers the highest possible price.  None of this "back room" transactions with their buddies.  How much did they get per BTC?

You might find that some of the loudest BTC critics on Capital Hill bought BTC dirt cheap.

The criminal case and the asset forfeiture case are 2 different, and often concurrent, proceedings.  Criminal responsibility requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.  The civil forfeiture case requires the preponderance of evidence, a significantly lower threshold. 

One's personal assets can be seized without having formally been charged with a crime according to US law.  While not often done this way, it's very possible.  A civil forfeiture case is filed alleging the acts that constitute a crime for which asset forfeiture is a remedy (e.g. a felony).  The government merely has to prove beyond a preponderance of the evidence that the property was proceeds, instruments, or derived from the criminal act (can't recall all of them) and get an assenting decree from a judge.  Presto!  You're stuff just became their stuff.

I don't believe the original story, either.  I'm merely pointing out that the asset forfeiture process and criminal prosecution are 2 entirely different animals in the criminal justice wild kingdom.

Wow. I wonder if this explains the sudden drop in btc prices lately. Seems to coincide.

Actually no. This was due to China again (minimal impact though).

Might? I'd bet on it (if it was verifiable at all). Same goes for officials in China.

Bitcoin seems to be used "wrong way", If I'm right It mentioned only $3M usd and no bitcoins officially? But how someone can prove that the gov didn't used bitcoins? There is no proof.

You should read the article. Where would the government use $3M worth of Bitcoins anyways?

Clandestine operations...

Long-term wealth?
$3M USD is nothing to the Gov, but someday Satoshis blocks will be worth a stunning amount of fiat and gold. 
Does "Satoshi" have control of those blocks?

No Satoshi does not?

I see this as a bad thing for because this isn't exactly good press IMO.  That being said I don't really know what the outcome of this whole things will be so I'll wait and learn more and see what is what for lack of a better term.

Dont forget the 120k plus bitcoins that russ ulbricht and the govt agreed to sale. This was agreed to a month or two ago. So, 120k plus coins hitting the market would def bring the price down.. not only that, the original coins that were seized were also going to be converted to fiat..

blockchain transaction or it didn't happen

here's the reddit discusion, not very interesting but maybe some of you are bored:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/245v63/us_government_seized_3m_usd_in_bitcoins_and/

The real world is different to what most of us think. Government implants naivete in us in order to control us under false pretenses.

Those coins are still in the same address. They have not been moved. They probably can't be moved until after the trial is done with and he is found guilty (potentially years).

Even then we have no indication of how those coins will be sold, so we can't tell for sure if it will drive the price down. The US gov dumping them on an exchange doesn't sound very likely. An auction of them all at a fixed price sounds more likely.

All of the press releases about this right now are just posturing.

It would be good to see a transaction id for the other sale that is mentioned.

update: the guy plead guilty
http://www.suntimes.com/27314150-761/worlds-most-prolific-online-drug-dealer-pleads-guilty-in-chicago.html#.U2vB2a1dV3d

That is usually how it works. Your choice is to fight a corrupt system and get 40 years if "found" guilty or "accept" a lesser sentence, in this case he hopes 15 years...

And in other news HSBC and Wochovia laundered upwards of 1/2 a BILLION dollars in drug money (comp licitly), which was directly connected to the deaths of 10,000 - 20,000 people, and were let off with a fine that amounted to less than their profits as putting anyone in prison would weaken the banking system, said representatives of the banking system (aka court and government).

local bitcoins i guess

Why would they sell BTC when they can print unlimited USD?

Leave it to the government to sell at a low.

Well I think that we have reached the bottom, and they made a mistake in selling off. But that is better for everyone else, they shouldn't even own those coins.

Imagine goverment panic buing them back when we go up :D

Yes, I hope they sell all as soon as possible. Government should not own bitcoin, they should be obligated to only use their paper money for centuries to come. :D

+1! ;D Would like to see it too.

Well they still own a lot I believe. They have the right to own coins, just as everyone else does. But I don't like the thought of them owning a big portion of them.

Why would this be a panic sell? I see it as a buying opportunity!