It's like scrambled and backwards, but that's what he emailed me..

Hm. Something must have copied wrong.

I don't know, but you can see the transactions here;
https://blockchain.info/address/1CaZEHtxg7g1ECurk5VL2G6zGUBjvD6odn

Hm. I was going to delete your post, but yes, that's pretty much how he operates.

You have my deepest apologize for the following wall of text, but a lot of people have been asking me questions about this conversation, so without further ado, here it is;

I contacted him at admin@glados.cc
TradeFortress does not respond to propositions he doesn't like. He doesn't give you a reason why.
I had to let him know that I would consider a proposal from him, and then he got back to me with an offer. (Long story short.)

Another person called it a "Pyrrhic victory", and I don't think I could put it any better than that. The question right now is, "How do I want to be screwed over?"

I think that had I waited longer there was a possibility that I could have received a higher proportion of my balance, and while I think there is no case to be made that TradeFortress has acted criminally, he has been demonstrably incompetent on several occasions, and so I decided to get out ASAP.

Your mileage may vary.

Hey dwdoc, if you want to give me some contact information, I can post it at the head of the OP so that people can find you easily. Unless you're planning on going it alone, which will be costly.

I did not have to present any identification because I had TradeFortress deposit into an address that I used to deposit to Inputs.io.
If you still have the private keys to those old addresses, that could be an excellent way to get your coins back without the need of identification.

Well, after some haggling I was able to settle with TradeFortress for 199.383xbt. While it's a pretty terrible outcome, at least I can put this mess behind me, and hopefully preserve my purchasing power in the face of the volatile bitcoin market.
I'll continue to update this thread, but any legal action will have to come from another party, as I no longer have any stake in the matter.

These were the transactions;
e1ec1cb240ba9eac5e845fb8cd342372cb00b307d1b845307b2666d1e8a9d010
c2da4a08c7f01f4ca599ab75594d3510abffa0db0f52a1c4f0349eded37cc772

Perhaps as a result of this deal TradeFortress can offer a better proportion of your deposits back.

It's a lot to digest... I'll update my opening post tomorrow.

Woe he just answered all my questions fairly quickly and thoroughly in an email! This is exciting!
Will update shortly.

Maybe he just responds better to direct and specific questions...

Update: Since I have settled with TradeFortress for 199.383 bitcoins, I no longer have any standing in a case against him. If someone wants to take over, then please let me know and I'll point people in your direction.


With TradeFortress' alarming lack of transparency and direction, coupled with his highly suspicious actions surrounding the alleged hack on October 23rd, I've decided that I want to start legal proceedings against him.

At this time, it seems that a class action lawsuit would be most appropriate, but I am open to the idea of pressing criminal charges.

If anyone in this forum knows of a good lawyer that could handle this case competently and at a competitive price, please let me know. If you have any other relevant information or advice, kindly post it below.

I have emailed and called around a half a dozen lawyers, but I will make a new thread there as well. The main reason I wanted to post it here is I think it's one of the most likely places I can find other Americans that can join me in the litigation.

Edit: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=336217.new#new

Edit: I can no longer pursue a civil suit, as his debt with me has been settled.

Edit: Nevermind about the questions, he sent me an email addressing them very thoroughly. Will update my thread.


On the off chance you're not trolling... I would love for you to give me his contact information. Otherwise, could you have him answer these questions?

1.) When did you first notice that the hot wallet was empty?

2.) How and when did you first realize your Linode administrative account was reset?

3.) Could you post the password reset logs for your Linode administrative console, and tell Linode employees that they may verify them for whoever asks?

4.) Do you have, and could you post, the logs of what the hacker did while he was logged into the Linode administrative console?

5.) Were the logins from 101.0.79.18 into your Linode administrative console, that you posted, the only time the hacker accessed it?

Update: He just answered all of my questions in an email to me. I'm very impressed with the thoroughness of the responses. Will update my thread on the subject shortly...

TradeFortress;
1.) When did you first notice that the hot wallet was empty?

2.) How and when did you first realize your Linode administrative account was reset?

3.) Could you post the password reset logs for your Linode administrative console, and tell Linode employees that they may verify them for whoever asks?

4.) Do you have, and could you post, the logs of what the hacker did while he was logged into the Linode administrative console?

5.) Were the logins from 101.0.79.18 into your Linode administrative console, that you posted, the only time the hacker accessed it?


That is the situation, and an awful way to handle what's going on. If TradeFortress comes clean and starts working with all of us, it would save me a headache, and the outcome would be more equitable.

Oh I see, sorry I hadn't looked much into it. I could also post the address that I had transferred to when I transferred into Inputs.io, if we could get enough of those addresses we could start to paint a clearer picture.
Why not?

It seems like the consensus in the community is that legal action and requesting transparency is a hindrance to TradeFortress, but if what he did was an honest mistake, then he has everything to gain by getting a third party to oversee what he's doing.
It would help him avoid mistakes, insulate him from legal action, and ease the doubts of his creditors.

He doesn't have to trust me and do everything I request to the letter, but he should at least be willing to have a civilized discussion, and be willing to answer some basic questions.

But anyway, I have some questions for TradeFortress;
1.) When did you first notice that the hot wallet was empty?

2.) How and when did you first realize your Linode administrative account was reset?

3.) Could you post the password reset logs for your Linode administrative console, and tell Linode employees that they may verify them for whoever asks?

4.) Do you have, and could you post, the logs of what the hacker did while he was logged into the Linode administrative console?

5.) Were the logins from 101.0.79.18 into your Linode administrative console, that you posted, the only time the hacker accessed it?

How would I prove that they are TradeFortress' coins?

Who copied what from wikipedia?

What, do you think they shouldn't get anything for them, gaston?

Yep, his profile showed "28", he's obviously changed it now.

If there was, not a dime worth of Coinlenders depositor's coins were in it.

More likely that he wanted to get as much depositors in to pay off old debt (Ponzi scheme), but it didn't work out when the price of btc skyrocketed and a ton of people started withdrawing.
Evidence suggests that's exactly what he was doing for more than two weeks after the hack.

I wasn't threatening to sue him at all until after I read his last "update".

Because it's the best chance of recovering the coins. Not reporting the theft isn't going to protect him from regulatory problems.

It was TradeFortress' responsibility to select loans according the the criterion that he laid out to us, the creditors. Low risk, fully covered by collateral (115%), resistant to exchange rate fluctuations, and/or the debtor is highly trusted with a long history.

He failed, and now we're suppose to just sit back and trust him while he handles default, and we need to just be happy with the answers he deigns to pass our way.

I understand your concern, but if we just let this keep going like it is the trail is going to get colder, and the coins are going to get further out of reach as prices rise long-term.
Hopefully we'll see a correction in the Bitcoin market, but we can't rely on chance, and we can't rely on TradeFortress for a number of reasons..

1.) He lied about his age.
2.) He lied about his security measures. (There was no cold wallet.)
3.) He didn't have 2FA on his email, despite telling everyone to use 2FA.
4.) He was using Linode despite it being hacked previously.
5.) He allowed people to deposit into Inputs.io after the hack and then paid older users with the funds. (Embezzlement.)
6.) He refuses to disclose any information on his operations.
7.) He refuses to report the theft of over $1,000,000 worth of bitcoins to law enforcement.
8.) He wont listen to or consider any solutions proposed by his creditors.
9.) Even though his site was stolen from almost a month ago, he has not formulated any short term or long term plans to compensate his users that he can present openly.
10.) He's told us that his debtors are being crushed by the bitcoin exchange rate despite assuring us that he would not lend money to investors that have anything but minor exposure to exchange rate fluctuations.

Many users have told him exactly what he needs to do in order to restore faith with his creditors. He has done exactly none of those things.

Not necessarily. Having access to subpoena and debt collecting agencies would be a great help...

As an example; The hacker or TradeFortress himself could have sent the btc to Mt.Gox thinking he could speculate on the price rise. We have absolutely no way of knowing right now because Mt.Gox employees wont even talk to us.

Not to mention all of the information TradeFortress refuses to disclose and the mountain of suspicious activity surrounding his actions over the past month..

I have no problem working with TradeFortress, but he has shown absolutely no interest in the idea.

That is how much btc has been reported to me that was deposited into CoinLenders.