PSA: cypherdoc is a paid shill, liar and probably epic scammer: HashFast affair

[marcus_of_augustus]

gov.uscourts.canb.532683.1.0.pdf

Inside that document the title will be:

California Northern Bankruptcy Court Case No. 15-03011 Hashfast Technologies LLC- Adversary Proceeding Document 1

Examine p1, pg 6. And I quote:

"At the times of the Transfers, the BTC transferred to the Defendant were worth $363,861.43. Based on the value of the BTC at the time of the transfers, the Defendant received approximately $11,370 per day or $2,274 per post on the “HashFast Endorsement” thread on Bitcointalk.org. By contrast, the highest salary paid to any principal or employee of HFT and/or HF was $144,000 for the entire calendar year of 2013."

Examine p3, pg 6. And I quote:

"At the time of the Transfers, the Debtors owed substantial sums of money and/or equipment to numerous customers and/or vendors. Many of these obligations remain unpaid and constitute general unsecured claims against the Estate. As of September 30, 2013, the Debtors’ balance sheet had a negative equity balance of about $5 million."

http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/2k5w2nwul/california-northern-bankruptcy-court/hashfast-technologies-llc-adversary-proceeding/

Looks like cypherdoc siphoned 3000BTC off Hashfast while customers were pre-paying for undelivered mining equipment. The payments were made in return for his 'shilling' on bitcointalk.org in the HashFastEndorsement thread. So probably some kind of pass-thru, tunnel or quid pro quo arrangement to ultimately bilk HashFast customers, I mean $2,274 per post, wtf?!

[Mitchell]

Holy shitballs... That is a lot of money for one post. I feel sorry for people that bought into Hashfast.

[midnightmagic]

Note that the docs on plainsite are technically out-of-date.

There is an "amended" complaint, and Lowe's answer, along with audio from a hearing where cypherdoc's lawyer compares him to a superstar basketball player re: Bitcoin marketing to justify the vast sum of cash for shilling.

cypherdoc justifies this with pointers to his gold threads early on: apparently he thinks this not only qualifies him as a bitcoin expert, but also a bitcoin marketing expert worth $360,000 or $11,000 per day.

I am unaware of any marketing expert in any software business, professional or not, who makes $11,000/day. The only people I know who make that much are owners of companies who've hit it big with a major product release.

There is no directly-established link between even a significant fraction of customers' purchases of babyjets and his activity on bitcointalk.

I have the amended complaint, the audio of the hearing, and the reply to the amended complaint available on a site, which I can provide to people upon request when asked, in PM, on Freenode. My nickname there is "midnightmagic", same as here.

[gmaxwell]

After hashfast blew up (I lost ~100 BTC to it, got nothing in return-- bummer considering they'd promised early customers to return deposited coins if they failed to deliver), I negatively rated Cypherdoc on the forum -- after all, he pushed this stuff hard and if reputation is to mean anything at all your reputation ought to take a hit when you promote something that rips people off.   Cypherdoc then emailed me and convinced me that he was just another victim, that got discounts for some promotion-- sure-- but his orders failed too.  I took down the rating. People make mistakes, and being another hashfast victim would be punishment enough.

I was quite surprised to read the complaint-- to learn that he'd been paid an astronomic 3000 BTC for his "promotion" services in addition to discounted hardware that he was refunded for (while many other customers got nothing).  It's also more than a little perplexing-- as a developer of Bitcoin and a moderator of the mining subforum payments like that seem completely out of line with anything I've experienced-- some people get a single demo piece for review and such, or an engineering sample for driver developer but I can't fathom what would justify payments like that, and I can understand why he's being sued to recover them. Doubly so because in my experience while cypherdoc is a long time participant, he was not all that well known outside of certain niche areas of the community (his claim to fame is the "gold collapsing" thread he started), and he appeared to have no expertise in mining that wasn't held by thousands of other participants.

Though my opinions might be colored a bit by the fact that since that time he's been rather rude and aggressive towards me in public (I suppose he's the expert in financial conflicts of interest if nothing else, 'enh?)  ...  but I only restored my negative rating of him on the forum after discovering that his poor-me act was just an act, and that he was by no means just a victim here.  I think he should return the funds which were fraudulently taken from hashfast customers; and that his hundred some shilling posts should not entitle him to walk away with a massive profit while so many of hashfast's customers-- some who did buy specifically on his advice--  have received nothing in return for their payment.

If indeed there was some greater fraud afoot, the parties involved should still find it greatly in there interest to settle this matter as fast as possible before its details come to light in discovery.

[tvbcof]

Wow.  Nicely played cypherdoc!  No wonder you have such a high opinion of your own work; it really does command high price in the 'free market'.  And here I was dubious about that.  My bad.

Anyway, carry on pumping Hearn's XT project to take over Bitcoin Core and get it's exponential bloat (and likely coin tainting as well) baked into Bitcoin.  It would be rude to ask if you are formally shilling for them and if so how much you get paid so I'll just muse about it I guess.

[Xian01]

Wow.  Nicely played cypherdoc!  No wonder you have such a high opinion of your own work; it really does command high price in the 'free market'.  And here I was dubious about that.  My bad.
Anyway, carry on pumping Hearn's XT project to take over Bitcoin Core and get it's exponential bloat (and likely coin tainting as well) baked into Bitcoin.  It would be rude to ask if you are formally shilling for them and if so how much you get paid so I'll just muse about it I guess.

I recognized cypherdoc was bad news back when I saw his rabid shilling for Hashfast. Bilking them out of 3k BTC ? That's just asinine.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Looks like cypherdoc has got this thread promptly moved off the front page, no wonder, the HashFast scandal stinks to high almighty. I'm just disturbed now that he may have paid some bitcointalk moderators to achieve this manipulation ... maybe it is time for a general cleaning of house around bitcointalk.org?

[tvbcof]

Looks like cypherdoc has got this thread promptly moved off the front page, no wonder, the HashFast scandal stinks to high almighty. I'm just disturbed now that he may have paid some bitcointalk moderators to achieve this manipulation ... maybe it is time for a general cleaning of house around bitcointalk.org?

As the ultimate arbiter of fairness...I have to say that there is some validity to the idea that this post would appropriately file this thread under 'scam accusations.'  It is also fairly appropriate to do otherwise under the argument that the content was relatively heavy on fact and lite on conjecture.

Nice to have a link to this thread in my back pocket one way or another.  Thanks for what could certainly be considered a 'PSA'.

For some reason nobody seems to want to believe that cypherdoc anything but a well meaning rube.  I have that impulse myself for reasons I don't fully understand, though I've entertained alternate hypothesis now and then.  I have at times wondered aloud why cypherdoc seems to take a hiatus in times of stress then come back strong seemingly newly armed with fresh talking points and angles to attack a problem.  Relatively recently I pondered if he had vanished to some war-room meeting to see who was going to eat the main losses in some endeavor as I recall, but I don't remember the details (and am to lazy to go through my posts.)  I'm pretty sure it was associated with someone who would lose out if sidechains or LN went live since that is the focus of my interest lately and it could damage the hell out of a range of other alternate solutions to Bitcoin's problems.

[Quickseller]

The amounts of money that he received are so large that I would doubt that he was actually being paid to post on that thread.  Granted, it may have been that this is what happened on paper, however I would find it much more likely that money was being laundered through him and/or was otherwise being used for illicit purposes.

The amounts of money he was making is comparable to how much the Clintons make for speaking publicly, and we all know the real reason they are paid for speaking....

[Blazed]

The amounts of money that he received are so large that I would doubt that he was actually being paid to post on that thread.  Granted, it may have been that this is what happened on paper, however I would find it much more likely that money was being laundered through him and/or was otherwise being used for illicit purposes.

The amounts of money he was making is comparable to how much the Clintons make for speaking publicly, and we all know the real reason they are paid for speaking....

What was the price of Bitcoin at the time though? Was that not back when we were $100? Not defending him at all, but the exchange rate matters a lot.

[Quickseller]

The amounts of money that he received are so large that I would doubt that he was actually being paid to post on that thread.  Granted, it may have been that this is what happened on paper, however I would find it much more likely that money was being laundered through him and/or was otherwise being used for illicit purposes.

The amounts of money he was making is comparable to how much the Clintons make for speaking publicly, and we all know the real reason they are paid for speaking....

What was the price of Bitcoin at the time though? Was that not back when we were $100? Not defending him at all, but the exchange rate matters a lot.

It said that at the time he received the Bitcoin, the value of the Bitcoin was worth ~$2,200 per post. I assume that the value of the Bitcoin he received is now higher.

So it would be the same as him receiving $2,200 in cash per post.

[BTSE]

The amounts of money that he received are so large that I would doubt that he was actually being paid to post on that thread.  Granted, it may have been that this is what happened on paper, however I would find it much more likely that money was being laundered through him and/or was otherwise being used for illicit purposes.

The amounts of money he was making is comparable to how much the Clintons make for speaking publicly, and we all know the real reason they are paid for speaking....

This is a very likely possibility. Is cypherdoc facing money laundering charges in addition to forfeiture of the BTC he received? I'm not familiar with reading US court proceedings.

[BadBear]

Looks like cypherdoc has got this thread promptly moved off the front page, no wonder, the HashFast scandal stinks to high almighty. I'm just disturbed now that he may have paid some bitcointalk moderators to achieve this manipulation ... maybe it is time for a general cleaning of house around bitcointalk.org?

I moved it. Last person I'm going to take bribes from is someone who has actively tried to have me removed from my position. He's already screwed his reputation, not going to give someone like that a chance to screw mine.

That said, I actually came in this thread to say I didn't think he was that kind of person, but that sure is pretty cut and dried. Sad to see.
Still belongs in scam accusations though.

[gmaxwell]

He's already screwed his reputation,

Dunno about that;  after the hashfast failed to deliver many people neg rated him--  and he made it out like he just got some discounted units from them that he lost money on, like the rest of the customers.  Given what he said before understating his involvement, and the fact that he'd claimed that he only benefited if it panned out-- it sounded completely believable. Many people who do equipment reviews, software development, etc. for mining don't get anything more than some free hardware and often just engineering samples.  I pulled back my negative rating, and others did as well; incorrectly sparing his reputation.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Looks like cypherdoc has got this thread promptly moved off the front page, no wonder, the HashFast scandal stinks to high almighty. I'm just disturbed now that he may have paid some bitcointalk moderators to achieve this manipulation ... maybe it is time for a general cleaning of house around bitcointalk.org?

I moved it. Last person I'm going to take bribes from is someone who has actively tried to have me removed from my position. He's already screwed his reputation, not going to give someone like that a chance to screw mine.

That said, I actually came in this thread to say I didn't think he was that kind of person, but that sure is pretty cut and dried. Sad to see.
Still belongs in scam accusations though.

Interesting. I didn't see it, or intend it, as a scam accusation. Note I used "probably epic scammer" and "looks like" etc on the possible fraud aspects of the scandal. And that part was only an addendum to the main point that he admitted in court documents that he is a paid shill.

The paid shilling to the tune of $2,274 per post is what cypherdoc used himself as a defense in a legal case. That was the main point of the post. I guess the obviously ludicrous court defense makes it plain there is some scam going on here and although I was highlighting something else it could easily look like a scam accusation.

In my view, there is something else fishy going on here with being paid that much to shill a non-existent mining product but that is for the courts to decide. I suspect he may have got himself into the situation where he happened to be the "trusted" bitcoin guru who ended up receiving all the incoming BTC funds for HashFast pre-orders and now he either doesn't want to hand them back or simply can't because he has lost them ... or some other weird bitcoin story that would-be sharpies get themselves into with crypto-currencies.

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

The amounts of money that he received are so large that I would doubt that he was actually being paid to post on that thread.  Granted, it may have been that this is what happened on paper, however I would find it much more likely that money was being laundered through him and/or was otherwise being used for illicit purposes.

The amounts of money he was making is comparable to how much the Clintons make for speaking publicly, and we all know the real reason they are paid for speaking....

This is a very likely possibility. Is cypherdoc facing money laundering charges in addition to forfeiture of the BTC he received? I'm not familiar with reading US court proceedings.

Not yet... This is a summons to appear in the HF bankruptcy case. It was schedueled for April 24, 2015.

Also: Hashfast is making a claim of relief against him:

36. The Defendant received the Transfers, and he continues to hold the BTC
transferred in the Wallet.
37. The BTC that comprised the Transfers constituted property belonging to one or
both of the Debtors at the time of the Transfers.
38. The Debtors received less than reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the
Transfers.  More precisely, the value of the “services” provided by the Defendants and received by
the Debtors (i.e., posting 160 comments on Bitcoin-related forums over a period of approximately one month) was
less valuable than the consideration provided in exchange for such “services”—
namely, BTC worth more than $350,000 at the time of the Transfers.

NB. Hashfast went bankrupt owing 40+ million dollars

[Gleb Gamow]

Wow.  Nicely played cypherdoc!  No wonder you have such a high opinion of your own work; it really does command high price in the 'free market'.  And here I was dubious about that.  My bad.
Anyway, carry on pumping Hearn's XT project to take over Bitcoin Core and get it's exponential bloat (and likely coin tainting as well) baked into Bitcoin.  It would be rude to ask if you are formally shilling for them and if so how much you get paid so I'll just muse about it I guess.

I recognized cypherdoc was bad news back when I saw his rabid shilling for Hashfast. Bilking them out of 3k BTC ? That's just asinine.

Akin to that cockroach shilling BFL for over a year prior to him becoming their COOckadoodledoo-cum(alloveryou)-VP. Said participated in the ad campaigns on this forum and purchased outright over three-quarter of a million dollars worth of cars and a home on a base salary of $50K/yr and a set a bitcoin miners producing ~15 BTC max according to his sworn statements under oath. Prior to BFL he was strapped for cash hence his GLSBE group-by attempt of which many got burnt in that ordeal in which he justified their lost with twisted "Honest Abe" verbiage.

Currently, Black Arrow is allowed to run a script on this forum that automatically deletes any posts shedding a bad light on that bad actor in spite of month's effort in getting such shut down.

[bitcoinmasterlord]

So how much did  hashfast earn in total at all? Is he maybe the real person behind and he wanted to secure the cash?

Surely the victims can argue that paying out this amount of money wasn't a business decision but something different. I seeing the amount of value i think a court will agree.

[SebastianJu]

Thats quite hefty. I have read the trust ratings and he really received 10% of the income of hashfast? Can any judge believe that that?

This really looks like a not so good done scam now. Probably not planned from the start because not clever enough. Except they thought they can deliver and nobody would complain.

Though even then, 10% of the income is not healthy for a company in any way. Giving that back is fully fair, regardless of the excuses.

Ill rate him red now.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Hmmm, where does the 10% figure come from, did HashFast pull in 30,000 BTC?

Regardless, 3000 BTC to shill some electronic hardware with speculative outcomes in incredibly misguided or shady. Why cypherdoc cannot see that the right thing is to give the money back to injured parties is kind of sad for a medical doctor sworn to the hippocratic oath. (Maybe he thought they said it was a hypocritic oath?)

Thats quite hefty. I have read the trust ratings and he really received 10% of the income of hashfast? Can any judge believe that that?

This really looks like a not so good done scam now. Probably not planned from the start because not clever enough. Except they thought they can deliver and nobody would complain.

Though even then, 10% of the income is not healthy for a company in any way. Giving that back is fully fair, regardless of the excuses.

Ill rate him red now.