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Hopefully, the rock-climbing is going well. Please pass best wishes to Zoe.
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"at the request of the Department of Justice."
That sounds strange. I am glad to hear that at least this part of the damage is over,
and to see some signs of sanity in your Justice system.
I recall that there seemed to be some sort of gag order in place, JaneW.
Are you now free to talk about these events?
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I believe it's called "voting with your wallet"
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I'm running 0.8.6-1 (when I run bitcoind)
That is the current version on Debian|Jessie.
I run Debian|Jessie because I prefer init.d and Xfce
I will probably move to one of the non-systemd distros like Antix when the dust settles a little.
I'm not looking to start a flamewar here, just offering a reasoned answer to a question.
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Just thinking about fraud.
If fraud increases, Mastercard must charge higher fees.
Is it really in Mastercards interest to reduce fraud?
Unless, of course there is a competitor with much lower rates of fraud ...
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It's good to hear that my online presence is valued. Really, Sincerely. But might I suggest that while all these resources are being devoted to monitoring activity that is probably 99.9 percent legitimate - If I spend my bitcoin I know the risks - maybe a small amount of these resources could be directed to actual abuse. And in other news ... http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/579760/Lord-Janner-spotted-London-dementia-child-sex-abuse"House of Lords politician Lord Janner was seen out and about north London in photos to emerge over the weekend. It was just last month that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Alison Saunders, ruled that the 86-year-old was not able to stand trial because he has dementia." Maybe if he had only used bitcoin he might now be in the dock. We may never know. |
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I'll mention that some statements in the press conflict with
what I've written here, so you may have to do your own research to clarify
these points.
I'll begin by saying I am not a lawyer.
This is my understanding of how companies are supposed to be run:
Companies have three assets - retained profits, equity and debts.
Equity is an investment at risk, when you invest you know you may lose it all.
Retained profits belong to the Company, and the Company is owned by
the shareholders, ie, equity investors. If the Company has no equity it
is technically insolvent and should cease trading. If it continues to trade
while insolvent, it may be breaking Company law.
That arrangement protects creditors, because the creditors should get
their money back minus any legal costs of bankruptcy. Under Bankruptcy
law some Creditors are more equal than others, ie a queue forms to collect
on their debt.
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Finally some closure on this issue, with Bitmine's bankruptcy.
Those guys were well out of their depth in attempting to take this company forward,
and as I had warned on the unofficial Bitmine thread, from the end of May 2014 when
refunds ceased, bankruptcy was a possible outcome. I'll quote Upton Sinclair:
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
My experience in dealing with these guys suggests that Bitmine kept paying salaries
until all the money was gone.
It's time to take some time to figure out what is left of Bitmine, and how to maximise
any returns to people like myself who pre-ordered miners. Maybe we need a new thread,
or just restart the old "Refunds" thread.
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"I am here in Peru where the only news is about Peru." ... clearly _not_ the only news ... but just to bring things into focus, a view on what has happened ... http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/20/flash-crash-or-a-turning-point-for-oil-prices/“In their report on the 2010 equity market crash, the SEC and CFTC staff found that “against a backdrop of unusually high volatility and thinning liquidity, a large fundamental trader (a mutual fund complex) initiated a sell programme to sell a total of 75,000 E-mini contracts (valued at approximately $4.1 billion) as a hedge to an existing equity position”. The CFTC knows that somebody did something stupid with $4.1Bn ... and others profited. In the course of the investigation TPTB realise that one of the little people managed to make some money, and figured that he had to be doing something illegal because the game is rigged in their favour with secret order types to allow them to front-run and to queue-jump. (read Scott Patterson's? book) At this point there are two theories : a) That TPTB want to avoid exposing their wrongdoing and their algorithms in court hence bringing a case against any US players is impractical; and b) TPTB want the code that generated the profit for themselves So, just before the SoL runs out, they pick the Armstrong option. (Go see "The Forecaster") Arrest (and extradite) on very doubtful (later no) grounds, demand the source code, and hold in jail for contempt of court for as long as the need exists. Eventually offer a choice of pleading guilty or n years in jail, where n > expected life. What could go wrong? It looks like things have not worked out as planned. The source code may not have been published immediately, but the inner workings and the methodology are known. So there is likely to be a small army working on implementing and improving the code right now, and Asia excels in industrial scale reproduction ... And contrary to the published propaganda the system is no more secure. TPTB would love you to believe that the avalanche was due to one rogue snowflake, ridiculous though that idea is. Maybe the bulldozers driven by the big banks? Hardly. How about the Federal Reserve Bank that built up the mountain using the US Taxpayer's money? They really do not want attention drawn to that ... For recent details ... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-24/why-nav-sarao-had-be-destroyed-he-found-way-beat-hfts-their-own-game |
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"to assume that sophisticated market participants are truly dumb enough to believe any of this is just shocking." That is the stunner. After everything they have seen, the dumb money still wants to believe ... ADD : I'll try to explain it like this. Back in the day, I played Quake with a 200msec lag. Soooo ... If I'm running down a corridor and want to get through a door I leap at the wall about ten feet before I reach the opening, and if I'm shooting, I lead the target by about the same ten feet. Every once in a while I'd get killed without ever seeing the shooter. That happened most often when the opponent was playing on the server, with a time lag of 50msec. Put simply, there was no contest when that happened. Today, when High Frequency Trading, the big players are co-located. That means the connection is on about 20 metres of cable at close to 299,792,458 metres per second - round figures would be about 100 nanoseconds from the exchange to your code. Big money is paid for that speed advantage. Thus when the CFTC alleges that "spoofing" took place, my immediate thought is that the CFTC has no clue. If you live in London and trade in New York, "spoofing" will get you killed. That is the one thing you want to avoid at all costs. And trading from your mom's basement? What?  There may have been something else going on, the alleged perp may even have found some way of time-travelling, but what happened almost certainly isn't what the CFTC alleges. |
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I'd suppose that most of the recent posts belong on a legal forum, but
until cross-posting is enabled, this is the only game in town.
Still no response from the Swiss authorities, still waiting ...
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To be clear, I am _not_ suggesting there was anything improper relating to this case, this is just some background information : http://consumerist.com/2015/04/08/dea-sued-over-secret-mass-surveillance-of-phone-calls/quote Additionally, notes the complaint, the DEA “could resume bulk collection under 21 U.S.C. § 876 at any time,” and the government “may still be collecting call record information in bulk under other authorities.” While many of the recent government snooping revelations resulted from Edward Snowden’s leaks about National Security Agency programs, the DEA’s Mass Surveillance Program was unknown to the public until Jan. 2015, when court ordered the agency to provide more details during a criminal case against a man accused of violating export restrictions on goods to Iran. unquote |
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@bitillionaire - The article covers almost all the story, though the central point
should have been given more prominence. The promises made by bitmine regarding the
refund included a ten percent penalty to be paid if the equipment cannot be
delivered on time. Leaving the engineering and the legalities aside for the moment,
any company that promises to pay out more than it takes in has to be a ponzi
scheme at at some point - that just the mathematics.
That makes the people running Bitmine either fools or knaves and perhaps both
at some point in time. And that's aside from the currency risks they ran that became
fact because of bitcoin's fall in value post November 2013. Order in November,
receive a refunded pay out x5 bitcoin the next year (in your dreams ...).
The question I would ask of Bitmine is where did the money come from to recapitalise
Bitmine early in 2014? Around the time that Georgio was hinting that his customers
were investors in Bitmine?
Just what does it take to get the Swiss to investigate one of their Companies?
Perhaps I will get these answers soon, I'm awaiting a reply to a request ...
then I get a lawyer ...
then ...
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Not directly applicable to bitcoin, but the Money Laundering part is worth noting : http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/newry-fraudster-spared-jail-over-money-laundering-1-6664964"In two and a half years his business handled over £63m, much of it, according to HM Customs, profit made by gangs north and south of the Irish border." “I will impose a sentence of two years on all counts and they will be suspended for a period of three years” "Prosecutor Stephen McCourt told the court that confiscation proceedings are due to take place at the end of April to recover £1 million from Trainor as a result of his “criminal offending’’" Lucky for him no bitcoin was involved. |
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Did I mention that bitcoin is the perfect way to make anonymous donations to worthy causes.
* No middleman
* Limited opportunities for fraud
* Low overheads
For example - restoring money stolen from little girls by governments ...
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"Sadly there is about as much chance of Ross seeing freedom in his lifetime as there is Chelsea Manning. Zero percent." IIRC, there was no plea bargain, and a jury trial. Now, imagine you are a juror, and the defence has just demonstrated that the prosecution witnesses are liars, thieves, and felons. Would you convict on that testimony? In most countries there would be no question, he would walk. "Bridges allegedly diverted to his personal account over $800,000 in digital currency that he gained control of during the Silk Road investigation. The complaint alleges that Bridges placed the assets into an account at Mt. Gox, the now-defunct digital currency exchange in Japan. He then allegedly wired funds into one of his personal investment accounts in the United States mere days before he sought a $2.1 million seizure warrant for Mt. Gox’s accounts." http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-30/federal-agents-investigating-bitcoin-money-laundering-stole-over-1-million-bitcoin |
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Hopefully, Burt has full records of the bitcoin that he held, and all the cash that was in the house, prior to the seizure. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-30/federal-agents-investigating-bitcoin-money-laundering-stole-over-1-million-bitcoin"Bridges allegedly diverted to his personal account over $800,000 in digital currency that he gained control of during the Silk Road investigation. The complaint alleges that Bridges placed the assets into an account at Mt. Gox, the now-defunct digital currency exchange in Japan. He then allegedly wired funds into one of his personal investment accounts in the United States mere days before he sought a $2.1 million seizure warrant for Mt. Gox’s accounts." It might be worth following up some of the earlier transactions with government agents. |
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Hmmm .... I think the phrase Dark Government is more appropriate than Deep State in this instance.
Again, I'm sorry to read of your ongoing oppression by the state. The creation of laws that
are near impossible to comply with is the very definition of totalitarianism.
I'd point out that it is impossible to prove a negative. This fact goes to the basis of all law,
for example, innocent until proven guilty. Not much help though.
I'd suggest getting some of the law enforcement people from the Silk Road case into the
witness box to testify to the fact that the US Government is selling bitcoin. Then challenge the
prosecution to define which action by the State is deemed by the State to be illegal, and
why action against that part of the State is or is not pending.
Don't get me started on all the other things the Government does that are beyond questionable.
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""They" are just upset people are making money without having to pay >25% of all profit to the governments of the world. Taxes are bullshit."
"They" are the people who avoid having to pay >25% of all profits. "They" make the rules.
Regulation of cryptocurrency is bullshit.
Did Regulation prevent the crash in 2008? or reduce the £500 BILLION needed to prop up the banks?
Did the government even go to the Regulator to ask for their money back? "Asleep at the wheel" IIRC
What has happened since - apart from G Brown promoting himself for "Saving the World" to Saving Scotland?
Debts and Leverage have increased, so the next crisis will different and more painful, and soon.
There's just enough time to introduce capital punishment for financial crime, like they have in China, instead of a Knighthood or promotion to the House of Lords. After that is passed and proven effective, then think about regulating bitcoin.
Jeremy Clarkson should run for Parliament!
Banking Regulator with a plan meets Jeremy Clarkson - I'd pay bitcoin to see that.
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