The most reasonable explanation is that someone used a stolen creditcard and it was chargedback (that explains the "original cardholder" in their response). You can ask your friend and explain to us how he obtained the funds (what funding method exactly) and if he could show something like a blurred CC statement showing the specified transaction to Bitgold or something...
People jumping on BitGold back and attacking them and claiming they are "going under", they just purchased a company for ~52 Million dollars and are a relatively big company now, there are unsatisfied customers of course (Like with PayPal, you can't say they are a scam but a bunch of people hate them and how they manage disputes/transactions/chargebacks etc...)
I wait for my bonus on bitgold
Bitgold is presented on all forums and adspace.
Yep, the last time I witness an adsense blitzkrieg like this, shortly thereafter GAW went belly-up.
I have connected a one Tom Williams to a mining outfit that just filed for bankruptcy the same time BitGold made their most recent announcements. Also, mybitcoin.com's terms were gleaned from a gold web presence found no where else on the Internet. There is a name I'm currently withholding that was affiliated with both entities.
Not sure of course, but hard to compare a cloud mining joke with a relatively big, well-funded business of this size... Just My opinion though and everyone is free to think the way they want.