Bryan Micon's List of Bitcoin Scammers, Shills, and Users Not To Trust IMO

[Micon]

I'm going to categorize scammers into how bad I think they are.


BTCBTC Scammer Hall of Fame BTCBTC
this group is reserved for only the worst, largest, filthiest bitcoin scammers.  Massive ponzi, large BTC theft, large single or distributed scumbagging (borrow and don't repay)

1)  Pirateat40 (still operating Confirmed scumbag, possible 500k BTC theft ($5M when stolen) )
2)  Bitcoinica Hacker 1 (anon)
3)  Bitcoinica Hacker 2 (anon)
4)  MT Gox Hacker (anon)
5)  Alberto Armandi --> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93445.msg1205151#msg1205151
6)  PatrickHarnett (credit ratings promoting other scammers, ponzi running himself, still operating)  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=61262.0
7)  vescudero (ponzi) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89122.0
 RustyRyan (ponzi)
9)  Hashking (ponzi)
10) mybitcointrade (ponzi) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81357.0  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=62023 
11) nckrazze (ponzi)  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81927.0


Lower Level Scammers
this group is reserved for the Ponzi affiliates (pass-throughs), smaller BTC scams and thefts,  & small BTC scumbagging.

1)  Payb.tc ($1M+ USD Pirate pass through,  top affiliate of the top BTC scam ever)
2)  BurtW  (outspoken PPT affiliate, wrote "Pirate is not a Ponzi" in his sig, blindly promoted the scam)
3)  Dank (where to start.  lovable little stoner-scammer with half-baked scams to get you to send BTC)

updated this slightly, needs much, much more work unfortunately 

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[Micon]

I will just leave this right here.

that is fucking awesome.

[elux]

Hi, Reddit! This post has been spun off into a separate thread on the same topic, discussion should be pointed there:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=110805.0

The CEO of Butterfly Labs is a convicted felon (25M USD worth of mail fraud.)

BFL hid this fact from its customers. (As they knew how the silly internet would react to this information.)

The information here presented would predictably make it much harder from BFL to acquire huge amounts of money through pre-orders.

(Yes, they have successfully taken in huge amounts of pre-paid pre-orders on untested, unreleased products, as can be easily verified.)

This post aims to collate the relevant, publicly available information and present it in a concise, readable format.


A concise summary of evidence:


(1) Chris Vleisides is the President/Director of Butterfly Labs Inc:

ENTITY DETAIL Name: BF Labs Inc.
...
President / Director: CHRIS VLEISIDES 2507 JEFFERSON KANSAS CITY, MO 64108

https://wyobiz.wy.gov/Business/FilingDetails.aspx?eFNum=149144214231010201167112190255028042109060235081

(2) Mr. Vleisides and associates orchestrated a massive mail order scam that ran from 1990 to 2006, causing a loss of at least 19M USD out of the ~25M USD invested in the scheme:

Sonny Chris Vleisides, 39, previously of Kansas City, MO was arrested in 2007 and held two years in Italy before he was extradited to the United States.
Vleisides was sentenced to 14 months in prison followed by three years supervised release after pleading to one count of mail fraud.

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/radDocs/PressRoom/nr110114.htm

(3) It has been established that Mr. Vleisides implicated in the mail order scam and Vleisides of BFL is the same person:

Sonny Vleisides is associated with BFL and it's the same Sonny listed in the case documents.  He was involved in off shore gaming in the capacity of selling and providing software engineering to companies that did the actual offshore gaming (there is even a US patent application for the process). The industry came under attack (as we all remember) around that time, and Mr. Vleisides was caught up in the process as well as a good portion of the industry based in Costa Rica.

Although this may be cause for concern to some, the fact is that we're a robust company with 22 employees.  One of them has a colorful background in offshore libertarianism.  If I thought there was even the possibility of something unsavory going on within BFL, you can rest assured I would a) not be part of it and b) would let everyone know it.

The reality is, we are legitimate, we have released revolutionary products and we are going to release more revolutionary products.  I was made aware of this back story prior to my employment and I evaluated it and concluded that it was immaterial to the business at hand and thus joined BFL.  There was nothing hidden from me and Sonny has always answered questions and been completely open about his past, but I think we can all agree that it's not something you just announce to the world.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=109349.msg1202784#msg1202784

Inaba is an employee of Butterfly Labs Inc, who posts on these forums under the names inaba and BFL_Josh.


(4) The mechanics of the scam, per DOJ Agent testimony:

A joint investigation involving the IRS-CID and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), revealed that from at least 1990 through July 2006, SONNY VLEISIDES, James Ray Houston, Dennis Emmett, William Cloud, Henry Walther, Scott Henry Walther, and others committed a massive international lottery scam using the following company names: Shamrock Agency, German Swiss Group, World Expert Fund, Mutual Medical Insurance Co, Old Amsterdam Trust Co, Euro American Fax Co, European Union Commission, EU American Payment Co, Global Search Network, North American Foreign Payments Services, Wor'dwide Verification Service, and others. VLEISIDES ran the scheme along with Houston and Emmett. VLEISIDES, Houston and Emmett, who were all located in Costa Rica, worked with mailing houses which, at the direction of VLEISIDES, Houston, and Emmett, sent out tens of thousands of mailings to victims in the United States, many of whom were elderly. The mailings contained false statements, half truths, and omissions, and induced the victims to participate in various international lotteries, falsely stating that if the victims participated, they were guaranteed to win or had a very good chance to win. The mailings directed the victims to send their money to Ireland, at d the Netherlands, among other locations, where William Cloud had set up addresses with commercial mail receiving agencies and individuals to forward the money, eventually, back to the United States. After receipt at the commercial mail receiving agencies, the victims' money was sent to Henry Walther, who, along with his son Scott Henry Walther, deposited the money into various bank accounts and then distributed it as directed by VLEISIDES, Houston, and Emmett. Some of the money was spent on furthering the criminal activity. Some of the money was paid out to victims in small-dollar checks that the co-schemers misrepresented to be lottery winnings. The rest of the money was paid out to the co-schemers and others for their own use. VLEISIDES and the other defendants did not buy any lottery tickets, and the vast majority of the victims lost the money they sent. The total loss from the scheme is in excess of $19 million.

...

An analysis was done on approximately twenty of the bank accounts established in the United States at the direction of VLEISIDES and his co-schemers. The analysis revealed, in summary, that the victims' money was first deposited into accounts established by the co-schemers at numerous banks in accounts with names that sound like official lotteries: SHAMROCK AGENCY, WORLD EXPERT, OLD AMSTERDAM, GERMAN SWISS, and EUC. (Hereinafter, accounts at this first layer will be referred to as "Deposit Accounts.") The co-schemers obtained over $19 million from tens of thousands of victims and deposited them into these accounts. After the co-schemers deposited the victims' money into the Deposit Accounts, they transferred the money to the next layer of accounts, hereinafter referred to as "Payment Accounts." These accounts were in names that included NORTH AMERICAN PAYMENT and EU PAYMENT SERVICE. From the Payment Accounts, the co-schemers wrote checks represented as winnings and sent them back to the victims. The amount of the alleged "winnings" was far less than the amount the victims sent in - for the over $19 million going into the accounts from victims, only approximately 20% was sent back to victims in the form of "winning" checks. The co-schemers transferred some of the money from the Deposit Accounts and Payment Accounts to the next layer of accounts, which will hereinafter be referred to as "Syphon Accounts." The co-schemers wrote checks (or used wire transfers) from the Lottery Accounts and the Payment Accounts to the Syphon Accounts, which were in names that included WESTERN INTERNET, BUTTERFIELD, CARNEGIE and HENRY WALTHER ATTORNEY WIRE ACCOUNT. Money from the Syphon Accounts was used to continue the scheme by paying scheme expenses, as well as to provide benefits to the co-schemers. The co-schemers also took money at each layer in the form of checks to cash, checks to themselves, or checks to the payment of personal or scheme expenses.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/106417808/Affidavit-for-Extradition-Warrant

(5) Mr Vleisides, the CEO of Butterfly Labs is forbidden from soliciting funds according to the terms of his parole:

September 15, 2010

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. SONNY VLEISIDES

...
The defendant is hereby placed on supervised release, effective immediately, for a term of three years under the following terms and conditions:
...
The defendant shall not engage, as whole or partial owner, employee or otherwise, in any business involving loan programs, gambling or gaming activities, telemarketing activities, investment programs or any other business involving the solicitation of funds or cold-calls to customers without the express approval of the Probation Officer prior to engagement in such employment.
...
All fines are waived as it is found that the defendant does not have the ability to pay a fine.
...
As directed by the Probation Officer, the defendant shall provide to the Probation Officer: (1) a signed release authorizing credit report inquiries; (2) federal and state income tax returns or a signed release authorizing their disclosure and (3) an accurate financial statement, with supporting documentation as to all assets, income and expenses of the defendant. In addition, the defendant shall not apply for any loan or open any line of credit without prior approval of the Probation Officer.
...
The defendant shall not transfer, sell, give away, or otherwise convey any asset with a fair market value in excess of $500 without approval of the Probation Officer until all financial obligations imposed by the Court have been satisfied in full.
...
Upon a finding of violation of probation or supervised release, I understand that the court may (1) revoke supervision, (2) extend the term of supervision, and/or (3) modify the conditions of supervision.

http://ca.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20100915_0004129.CCA.htm/qx

Thus, it can be seen the CEO of Butterfly Labs is likely* in violation of his parole.

* (Unless given express prior approval from his probation officer on a number of counts.)


To return to the first point, the CEO of BFL is a convicted felon and a scammer, as should be evident from the above.

I sincerely hope BFL is not simply a preorder scam, and I hope BFL does everything in their power to show that they're in fact not.


However, alarm bells should be ringing, and red lights flashing all over the place. This could be the biggest, and by far most professional scam yet.

For the time being, and under the weight of the public and indisputable evidence presented above, it seems prudent to say:

Do not order ASIC "Supercomputers", or other unreleased products from Butterfly Labs Inc.

This post summarizes what is known at the present time. This thread will be updated with new information as it becomes available.


Notes:

(1) This summary was originally posted to: Bryan Micon's List of Bitcoin Scammers, Shills, and Users Not To Trust IMO

That about summarizes what is known at the present time. I'll be moving this to a separate thread.

[repentance]

actually ,he had very little posts on the forum when the PPT guys were recruiting fresh accounts .........

It's hard to know how much he encouraged the setting up of pass-throughs behind the scenes. 

Quote from: chungenhung on 09 February 2012, 14:14:14
OP, since you will only accept referrals, then are you saying current lenders can advertise it on the forum?
I know you have strict rules about that in the past when things got heated up with ineeduser*

As long as they are dealing with me directly I am fine with it.  What I don't want to see is people advertising that they can lend through them to me.

In April, his attitude changed and he formally "allowed" the operation of PPTs.

The big issue early on was the attack by established members being able to force out new members.  I don't condone an unfriendly environment so I made it very clear early on that it was not something I was willing to deal with.   As FPS&T has grown, it has become much easier to handle large investors managing smaller accounts than me handling them directly. So, I've allowed established lenders to grow their own market with the following in mind.

And I need to make this very clear...

At this point FPS&T has become a true bank in almost every sense of the word.  So, like a bank would protect it's account holders from the outside, FPS&T will do the same to it's members.  The commitment between FPS&T and it's account holders is directly with one another.  No outside organization can access, freeze, suspend or speak on behalf of anyone but the account holder. I have no responsibility to anyone except the account holder and they're responsible for deposits and withdrawals made to and from their account.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50822.msg840854#msg840854

After that point, pirate no longer needed to have any direct involvement in the solicitation of funds.

[IgpayAtinLay]

How is dank a scammer? DankGlass? He gave me .4 BTC for free. Scammer usually dont do that, no?

[malevolent]

I'm going to categorize scammers into how bad I think they are.


BTCBTC Scammer Hall of Fame BTCBTC
this group is reserved for only the worst, largest, filthiest bitcoin scammers.  Massive ponzi, large BTC theft, large single or distributed scumbagging (borrow and don't repay)

1)  Pirateat40 (still operating Confirmed scumbag, possible 500k BTC theft ($5M when stolen) )
2)  Bitcoinica Hacker 1 (anon)
3)  Bitcoinica Hacker 2 (anon)
4)  MT Gox Hacker (anon)
5)  Alberto Armandi --> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93445.msg1205151#msg1205151
6)  PatrickHarnett (credit ratings promoting other scammers, ponzi running himself, still operating)  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=61262.0
7)  vescudero (ponzi) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89122.0
 RustyRyan (ponzi)
9)  Hashking (ponzi)
10) mybitcointrade (ponzi) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81357.0  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=62023 
11) nckrazze (ponzi)  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81927.0


Lower Level Scammers
this group is reserved for the Ponzi affiliates (pass-throughs), smaller BTC scams and thefts,  & small BTC scumbagging.

1)  Payb.tc ($1M+ USD Pirate pass through,  top affiliate of the top BTC scam ever)
2)  BurtW  (outspoken PPT affiliate, wrote "Pirate is not a Ponzi" in his sig, blindly promoted the scam)
3)  Dank (where to start.  lovable little stoner-scammer with half-baked scams to get you to send BTC)

Please add Andrew Nollan (shakaru) to the list - he owes $38 000+

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=65989.0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnzolfvAaL97dGlQZjZmcFMwTzlmbWJNUHdyZnM4M2c#gid=3

[Fjordbit]

Something stuck out for me here:

An analysis was done on approximately twenty of the bank accounts established in the United States at the direction of VLEISIDES and his co-schemers.

This actually gives a strong motivation for why Sonny would want Bitcoin to succeed. He's already felt the result of the strong ties the current banking system has to the government.

The defendant shall not transfer, sell, give away, or otherwise convey any asset with a fair market value in excess of $500 without approval of the Probation Officer until all financial obligations imposed by the Court have been satisfied in full.

People seem to not understand this section at all. This is referring to Sonny's personal property only. It has nothing to do with units that BFL manufactures and sells as a part of their business.


And the lottery thing is kind of scummy, but I'm guessing people signed up voluntarily so it's really hard to say if people were being scammed or if they were just fooling themselves with a fiat version of SatoshiDice. I tend not to put a lot of stock in the descriptions prosecutors put in their write ups. I have a friend who is on the sex offenders list because she streaked down her block.

[RyanRed]

The more and more I read about this BFL conspiracy, the more, and more I find myself drifting away from them.

I can see it both ways though. From their perspective, and the consumers. What I dont understand is why they are so "hush hush" about these asic devices. I've never seen a company offer to sell you something without at least backing it with proof. Is it REALLY that top secret? Ok, so if it is, then I can understand the secrecy. But were coming up on the time they are supposed to ship these things. Would it hurt for them to post a picture or two?  I donno... seems very unprofessional if this is real.

I've sent emails to them via the website, and never even get a response.  Ok, well in their defense they are probably flooded with email on a daily basis, and with their "22" employees I can see how they can't get to every single one. But from a company stand point, why not just added a *Due to the overwhelming amount of email we recieve daily we may not be able to respond in a timely fashion when submitting your form? Again, on a professional level they are filled with so many holes. I've been looking into them every single day since I found out about ASIC, and everyday I find myself questioning their operation. This is not just based on forum chatter. Its based upon how they have operated with me personally. I for one want an ASIC SC like there's no tomorrow, but I'm not going toss $1,300 at a company that can't even give a common curtsey email response. The way I see it they need to hire a PR guy. Pay the guy 10 bucks an hour to answer emails all day. They can't find someone to do that?

I donno.... for all I know the paranoia of this Bitcoin world could just be rubbing off on me. Or maybe I'm rightly justified for just wanting a little more information. I tend to lean towards my justification.  I have no plan on ever ordering from them until I get some better validation.

[IgpayAtinLay]

The more and more I read about this BFL conspiracy, the more, and more I find myself drifting away from them.

I can see it both ways though. From their perspective, and the consumers. What I dont understand is why they are so "hush hush" about these asic devices. I've never seen a company offer to sell you something without at least backing it with proof. Is it REALLY that top secret? Ok, so if it is, then I can understand the secrecy. But were coming up on the time they are supposed to ship these things. Would it hurt for them to post a picture or two?  I donno... seems very unprofessional if this is real.

I've sent emails to them via the website, and never even get a response.  Ok, well in their defense they are probably flooded with email on a daily basis, and with their "22" employees I can see how they can't get to every single one. But from a company stand point, why not just added a *Due to the overwhelming amount of email we recieve daily we may not be able to respond in a timely fashion when submitting your form? Again, on a professional level they are filled with so many holes. I've been looking into them every single day since I found out about ASIC, and everyday I find myself questioning their operation. This is not just based on forum chatter. Its based upon how they have operated with me personally. I for one want an ASIC SC like there's no tomorrow, but I'm not going toss $1,300 at a company that can't even give a common curtsey email response. The way I see it they need to hire a PR guy. Pay the guy 10 bucks an hour to answer emails all day. They can't find someone to do that?

I donno.... for all I know the paranoia of this Bitcoin world could just be rubbing off on me. Or maybe I'm rightly justified for just wanting a little more information. I tend to lean towards my justification.  I have no plan on ever ordering from them until I get some better validation.

Just to throw in my 2 bitpennies.... 10/H is NOWHERE near enough to get caught in this scam and have your rep ruined. I made one mistake with a photo during a loan and im getting blasted. Imagine a scam that large...

[bitlane]

Bryan, this is my present for you

[420]

i thought vescudero paid back all lenders

[tbcoin]

i thought vescudero paid back all lenders

And he did, he should not be on this list.

[Polvos]

I bought about 100 BTC from vescudero and it was all fine and fast with him. I even paid first. He doesn't deserve to be in the list.

[Micon]

donkdown:

http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370539730583#.Ue8JvEHYB8H

[Atruk]

donkdown:

http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370539730583#.Ue8JvEHYB8H

So I guess the thing to watch now is how many mining (not quite) bonds start leaving the securities forum...

[420]

donkdown:

http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370539730583#.Ue8JvEHYB8H

isn't this HUMONGOUS NEWS?