Bitcoin Forum

Recently a new bill was introduced on the floor of the US Senate entitled, pleasantly,

“Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.”

You can probably already guess its contents.

Cash is evil.
 
Bitcoin is evil.
 
Now they’ve gone so far to include prepaid mobile phones, retail gift vouchers, or even electronic coupons. Evil, evil, and evil.
These people are certifiably insane.

Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.

Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.

This new bill adds a laundry list of offenses for which they can legally seize your assets… all of which pertain to money laundering and other financial crimes.

Here’s the thing, though: they’ve also vastly expanded on the definition of such ‘financial crimes’, including failure to fill out a form if you happen to be transporting more than $10,000 worth of ‘monetary instruments’.

Have too much cash? You’d better tell the government.

If not, they’re authorizing themselves in this bill to seize not just the money you didn’t report, but ALL of your assets and bank accounts.

They even go so far as to specifically name “safety deposit boxes” among the various assets that they can seize if you don’t fill out the form.

Oh, and on top of civil asset forfeiture penalties, there are also criminal penalties.

Right now according to current law they can imprison you for up to FIVE YEARS for not filling out the form. Five years.

But apparently that doesn’t go far enough to protect us against evil men in caves.

So this bill aims to double the criminal penalty to TEN years in prison.

And if that weren’t enough, this bill also gives them with new authority to engage in surveillance and wiretapping (including phone, email, etc.) if they have even a hint of suspicion that you might be transporting excess ‘monetary instruments’.

Usually wiretapping authority is reserved for major crimes like kidnapping, human trafficking, felony fraud, etc.

Now we can add cash to that list.

It’s not just government spy agencies to worry about, either.

Banks in the US are already unpaid government spies, required by law to fill out suspicious activity reports on their customers.

Then Congress started expanding those requirements to include other businesses and industries that might come into contact with cash.

Stock brokers. Casinos. Currency exchanges. Precious metals dealers. Pawnbrokers. The Post Office.

According to the law (section 5312 of US Code Title 31), those industries are also required to spy on their customers for the government.

But under this new bill, they want to forcibly recruit even more unpaid spies, including any business which issues or redeems ANYTHING that’s prepaid.

Prepaid credit cards. Prepaid phones. Prepaid retail gift cards. Prepaid coupons.

So, Amazon.com, which issues and redeems prepaid gift cards, will be required under this bill to file reports to the government.

For that matter, TGI Fridays and Chuckee Cheese will also become unpaid government spies since they both issue and redeem prepaid vouchers.

Truly these Senators have figured out how to strike at the heart of ISIS.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-14/you-wont-believe-stupid-new-law-against-cash-and-bitcoin

We are living in a very extraordinary times where economic and political stability can be wanting. Many governments are reacting wildly to terrorism to the point that they ware willing to sacrifice personal liberty and freedom in the altar of the greater good, as they claimed.

...you see who we have as president.  A psychopath. ...

<snip>

US banks and governments showing once again they oppress innovation and progress and work hard to keep people from succeeding at their dreams or ambitions.

Will russia pass a similar bill I wonder? What of japan, canada or australia? I think they will be pressured to pass similar bills in the days to come.

This may only affect the united states as only americans are heavily armed and globalists seem to focus more on the USA for that reason.

US banks and governments showing once again they oppress innovation and progress and work hard to keep people from succeeding at their dreams or ambitions.

Will russia pass a similar bill I wonder? What of japan, canada or australia? I think they will be pressured to pass similar bills in the days to come.

This may only affect the united states as only americans are heavily armed and globalists seem to focus more on the USA for that reason.

Hopefully they won't be confiscating bitcoin, but who knows.

Zerohedge, inflaming passions to hype precious metals as always. 

That law would give incentive to start buying and holding anonymous cryptocurrencies like XMR. Soon enough the government will start mapping the transactions in the blockchain and would start grouping the wallets together and then tracing a person's BTC activities.

I understand why they are targeting cash and bitcoin, but gift cards as well? Jeez, i wonder how much this is going to cost them and how much stuff is actually going to be done ::)

Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.

Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.

Most of what you quoted is completely inflammatory and false. Did you even read the Bill? I'll focus on something that you said, show me where the the above statement you made is mentioned in the HR Bill. We can wait...

While we're waiting, let's talk about what this Bill is after. It's after controlling money laundering. The only mention of asset forfeitures is if you are suspected to be involved in money laundering or conducting illegal activity via financial transactions.

There's no mention of Bitcoin. There is mention of "money laundering and tumbling".

The comment about prepaid cards is because people use dirty money to buy prepaid Visa or Amex cards to turn that dirty money clean. They launder their money through these cards.

There's no where in the document that says if you have cash at your home you have to register its existence.

Anyway, did you find the mention of "ciivl asset forfeiture" in absence of committing a money laundering crime?

I'm still waiting....still waiting.

Gift cards? How bizarre. They're already fully traceable by the account they're applied to, let alone the address you ship products to.

I'd say the EU will end up with more heinous regulations than the US. They have more terrorism and possibly more of an authoritarian bent too. The EU will go cashless far quicker than America as well and that's when it really gets heavy.

US banks and governments showing once again they oppress innovation and progress and work hard to keep people from succeeding at their dreams or ambitions.

Will russia pass a similar bill I wonder? What of japan, canada or australia? I think they will be pressured to pass similar bills in the days to come.

This may only affect the united states as only americans are heavily armed and globalists seem to focus more on the USA for that reason.

Why gift cards though, pretty sure they can easily be traced back to the person who bought them. EU and America will probably have way more restrictions since their terosism is bigger than other countries like Australia, really sucks though  it is just goverments panicking too hard.

But not if they are bought and sold like on forums like these.

Besides they just want to seize everyone's property. They will come even after your toothbrush!

What do you expect from them? they are bullies and like to have everything their way, Bitcoin was from the start an opposing instrument

To neutralize whatever part governments were playing, all they needed as a red flag was a $100B market share. mixers in this case are

Like the stealth drones in the technological sense.

US banks and governments showing once again they oppress innovation and progress and work hard to keep people from succeeding at their dreams or ambitions.

Will russia pass a similar bill I wonder? What of japan, canada or australia? I think they will be pressured to pass similar bills in the days to come.

This may only affect the united states as only americans are heavily armed and globalists seem to focus more on the USA for that reason.